Haibara Quest
by Part-time Dreamer
Summary: Haibara is hiding something, and Conan is challenged to find out! Will the great detective from the East solve this mystery? Will he break every barrier between them? Find out and be part of their awesome journey! Conan/Haibara. Shinichi/Shiho. COMPLETE.
1. What's Wrong, Haibara?

**EDIT(9/9/2011) The Late A/N: **I wrote this when I was working on chapter 6. Pretty late, indeed. But I felt a great urge to spit this out of my mind, so here it is.

If you're a quite decent DC fans, unlike me, you must've been aware since long ago that Shinichi had confessed to his long-awaiting girlfriend in destiny. And it's definitely NOT a good news to certain pairing supporter. Yes, that's us.

So after reading the confession chapter, I was temporarily shocked. It was not fair, I thought. But still, what can I do as a mere reader anyway, to erase this painful truth and fact? To keep my faith in a little hope that still exist in my dream?

That's right. I can write (or continue to write) fics.

It's dedicated to you, fans of this wonderful pairing.

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**CHAPTER 1 - What's Wrong, Haibara?**

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It was one bright Sunday morning when Conan was yawning audibly in Hakase's couch.

"Fuwaah.. What a boring Sunday!" he cried out desperately to nobody in particular, "a teenage boy in my age should go hang out on this kind of day, not just sitting here alone!"

"My, my, Shinichi-kun," Hakase commented from the kitchen, washing the dishes, "There are a lot of things you can do. It's Sunday morning, for God's sake! Start doing something."

"Yeah? Like what? Going to the park with those kids from Detective Boys? Geez..." Conan sighed.

"You know, you act like a real kid sometimes," Hakase sat down the couch and grabbed the remote. He heard Conan grumbled and Hakase turned on the TV, practically ignored the whining child.

"Where's Haibara, anyway?"

"Oh, Ai-kun is probably at the lab."

"She's never bored in there, isn't she?" Conan scoffed.

"The same applies to you, Tantei-kun, when it comes to murders and cases," Agasa chuckled. Conan chose to ignore it. "Why don't you come over there to see her, Shinichi-kun? She's working hard for you, you know..."

The boy didn't respond. He just stared flat at the TV and muttered something of disapproval. Hakase finally got enough of his patience.

"Fine. If you want to stay here, then you have to watch this," said Hakase and changed the channel to Kamen Yaiba series. Conan's eyes are wide for a second and hurriedly went to the lab. He decided that it's better be with Haibara's apparatus than be with that stupid series.

Hakase grinned in victory.

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Conan walked the stairs almost lazily and when he hit the door to the lab, he didn't bother to knock and pushed the door open. He took the first step and examined around.

He had to blink a few times to adjust to the familiar darkness surrounding the room, despite that it's a bright morning.

He screened the room to search for any sign of living being.

"Ah, there you are-"

"You didn't knock," said the girl in the room, still facing to the monitor in front of her.

"You know, your eyes would get hurt if you keep on working in this light," he said, ignoring the complaint and took a seat in nearby chair. "What are you working on, anyway?"

Haibara shot him a look for a second and continue working, "What do you think?"

"Hey, what's that look for? I'm just checking you," Conan protested at the coldness in the girl's tone and looked somewhat offended.

Haibara Ai only shrugged, "Whatever."

A silence followed later, making Conan shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Sure he just want to make a conversation with the girl, but it seems that she won't make it easy. Well, things have never been easy with her! He should've known that!

Haibara noticed a frown on Conan's face and she leaned back on her seat, hands massaging her temples.

"I'm sorry," she said, "it's just that... Nevermind."

Conan's frown softened for a while, Haibara looked suddenly so tired. He felt a pang of guilt in his chest. Of course she was tired. Dealing with chemicals and compounds should be hard, and a teenage girl at her age have dealt with horrible things you had never imagined.

"Have you slept yet?" Conan asked suddenly.

"... I guess not,"

"Well, go get some sleep then, I guess," he stood up, offering the girl a hand to help her get off her chair too, "Do you want to get sick or something?"

Haibara sighed and took Conan's hand, used it as leverage to lift herself up from the chair. "I guess you're right," she said and walked past the detective to head on to her room and yawned, "Turn off the PC, will you?"

"Geez..." Conan sighed to the passing figure, his kinda concerned mom-like look suddenly turned into a frown.

"-And don't try to peek at any files, or you'll gonna regret it for the rest of your life."

"Fine, fine. Just go to sleep already!" and with that, he was left alone in the darkness.

He let out a sigh before reaching for the PC and try to locate the power button. But darkness made him hard to see anything, so he switched the flashlight from his watch and complete his job. It was after unplugging the cable when he noticed that the room was kinda peculiar.

Next to the PC, there is a large wooden table with few devices on it. Conan had seen it many times with Hakase when he's showing off his latest inventions, so he didn't bothered with that. What's bothering him is the half-opened drawer under the table, with messy papers inside it.

"What's that? I never see Haibara left her work disorganized," his detective instinct told him.

Driven with curiosity, he took few sheets of paper from it and examined them, one by one.

And his eyes went wide on every observation.

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"How is it, Hakase?" Conan asked to the professor in front of him, hands under his pocket. It was Wednesday. And he was dragged early from school to Hakase's house along with three kids from his class who never get off of him since...forever. They even made up a group called Detective Boys with him, because they found out that his ability to solve riddles plus his unusual knowledge is just too much fun.

"40 degrees..." the professor replied shortly with a concerned look from his face and a thermometer in his hand, "Not good..."

"Geez, Haibara. What have you done this time?" the boy shot a flat stare to the girl in question, as if blaming her.

"Be nice, Conan-kun. Ai-chan is sick!" Ayumi hissed.

"Heh, what was that, Conan? It's not her fault for being sick!" Genta glared.

"Yeah, Conan-kun. Behave yourself," Mitsuhiko commanded.

Hakase sweatdropped, Haibara coughed a few times.

"Ah! You see? You're just making Ai-chan get worse!" Ayumi cried frantically to the girl in bed, "Are you okay, Ai-chan?"

"Don't worry- cough- I just need- cough- some rest..." the girl managed to speak.

"Well, kids, Ai-kun is right," Hakase said gently with a reassuring smile, "So you better be home now, and let Ai-kun rest. I'm sure she'll get a lot better tomorrow."

The three looked hesitant to leave for a second, but they left eventually after wishing Haibara to get well soon. Haibara, on the other hand, was fast asleep after taking medicines given by Hakase. Taking the chance, Conan confronted Hakase in the kitchen.

"She's overworked herself, wasn't she?" the boy said, "again."

"Well, Shinichi-kun, she always worked so long in the lab, and I already tried my best to keep her under control..." Hakase trailed off, sounded still worried, "but this time... It's different. She's overdone herself for something, and I don't think it's because of her work..."

"Did she tell you anything?"

"No... She didn't tell me much about her work, even when she's working the antidote. I respect her secrecy, of course, so I never questioned her or anything..."

"Did she... get out lately? Maybe, you know, she encountered one of them and not telling us that she did..."

"That's not possible, Shinichi-kun. She's always in her lab afterschool and she won't come out until the next morning... It's been three days straight, and I-"

"She's been working three days straight?" Conan's face bewildered.

"-ah, yes. Since you came over last Sunday," Hakase took a seat on the couch in the livingroom, "If only I knew what's bothering her."

"Well, it's not like you'd get straight answer from her if you ask. She always makes things complicated whenever it comes to her being and her life..."

"What do we do now, Shinichi-kun? Can you at least help her?" Hakase suggested with panic tone.

"Oh, I wish," Conan sighed.

"Please, Shinichi-kun. I kinda feel bad to let her suffer things on her own... I feel like I need to do something to help her, but what can an old man like me do to understand such complicated, young, fragile spirit? If only I could turn myself into one of-"

"Alright, alright, Hakase. I'll try to figure out," Conan cut off the frantic whining from professor. Hakase only grinned wide in reply, happy to know that his trick worked to the detective. "And now, I shall go to the lab to investigate, if you don't mind."

"No, not at all!" Hakase sounded happy.

"And one more thing, Professor. What is the password to your PC?"

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**TO BE CONTINUED**

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><p><strong>AN: **So I was bored and decided to write this Ai x Conan (and hopefully Shiho x Shinichi) fics. This is just the beginning of upcoming adventure which I predicted would be unrevealed on next chapter. The main plot had been planned and I hope I could finish writing them off soon.

So, for the mean time, why don't you share your thoughts and hit that lovely review button?


	2. Mysterious Young Scientist

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Detective Conan**

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**CHAPTER 2 - Mysterious Young Scientist**

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Conan was fully aware about what he's about to encounter.

Not that he doubt his skill and all; he's been known as a prodigy since he was just a child, and soon everyone acknowledged him as the young genius detective from the east. He'd dealt with various cases in which he's always able to solve (not to mention that somehow the cases seemed to be occurring near him, though), and he had a pretty good bunch of experiences with human's hidden motives. Sure, dealing with certain scientist-girl wouldn't be that difficult.

But this is Haibara Ai we're talking about.

As long as Conan could remember, Haibara Ai's personality is one of the hardest to penetrate. There are so many barrier, so many defenses. But he _kind of_ understood it due to her complicated past. She had the hardest kind of life with the dammed organization she's been living with. She had lived by the rules of others to do things she never intended to do. Her only lifesaver had been taken away as well when her Onee-chan was murdered right under _his_ nose.

He understood that she didn't want to get hurt anymore because she had to defend the little last hope she had to have a much better live than she's been living all this time.

But what does he know about hope, anyway? About _her_ hope?

Because she'd been all that defensive, he could only make deduction to interpret her feelings. Of course what he suspected are based on experiences and human interactions of his, but he couldn't say that it's totally flawless. Human's mind is very complicated afterall, and no one can guarantee that you could totally analyze its depth based only on experiences.

Conan took a deep breath. This is going to be the hardest case ever.

With Agasa's permission, he logged on to the PC on the lab; the one Haibara used. He remembered that the girl warned him not to mess with the files, but he needed more information than a mere hypothesis. If he's serious about solving this mystery, he had to break all the restriction and give all his might.

He first examined the folders, nothing suspicious. He ran a few system modifications to see if there's any hidden files, but he got nothing. He checked the recycle bin, but there's nothing there. Damn, he's never good with dealing with computers anyway.

Slightly frowned, he opened the web browsers and tried his luck on internet history. She didn't clear it! Good. He scanned through the list of web history and a small source of light flashed in his grey mind.

It was a good bunch of websites about bars and night clubs all across Japan. _What the...hell...?_

Suddenly, he remembered the papers he found three days ago, and he jerked up to find those. He opened the drawer, but they were gone! Instead, there is a sheet of paper with a map of Japan and lots of pen scratches here and there, showing something like...dates? There was a day, month, and year notes all over the map. Dates of what? He couldn't guess.

Quickly, he copied all the dates and locations on the map on his note and returned the sheet to its original place. Better not to make certain someone got suspicious now.

Then he's back to the computer and focused all his concentration on the website and his note in his hand. There's gotta be something. What did the dates mean? Where were the papers he previously found? Are they connected? Had she been working on _this_ all this time? Why? What's her aim?

His mind's working like crazy, creating different versions of possibilities and impossibilities at the same time. In the thunderous turbulence of his mind, Conan smirked.

Well, Haibara Ai, it seems that you had given me the ultimate case to solve.

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Haibara shifted under her blanket, finally awake from a short nap that felt like a long tiring sleep. She intended to get up, but her head was too dizzy so she lied down helplessly on her bed. She tried to look at the clock. 7 p.m. So it's evening already?

She screened through her room with narrowed eyes, because it's all surrounded with darkness. Hakase must've turned her light off to keep her asleep, and she thanked him for that. She heard a faint sound of television from outside; Hakase's maybe there to keep an eye on her.

Then suddenly her head aches pretty badly. She shut her eyes off in reflex to endure the pain, and let a slight groan when it didn't help much.

"Haibara, you need some more sleep."

_What? Who's talking?_

"It's okay, just go back to sleep," the voice said again, more gentle now.

_...Kudo-kun? Is that you?_

Then a shadowy little figure approached the bed and fixed the blanket so Haibara was covered in it once again, making the urge to sleep get bigger. _So it's you... But why...?_

"You'll be fine tomorrow, I promise."

With those word, Haibara find some warmth somewhere in her heart and mind, then she had fallen deep in the peaceful bliss once more.

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"Hey, watch it, Hakase! You're gonna ruin our breakfast!"

"Sorry, sorry! My hand slipped, Shinichi-kun!"

"Heh, be careful next time, Grandpa."

"Who did you call Grandpa? I'm not that old!"

"Geez..."

Haibara blinked a few times that morning, it's weird that you had woken up from incoherent noises so you need to adjust your brain to register what's going on. After few minutes, she tried to lift herself up with a support from her right hand; the other was rubbing her heavy eyes.

"Ah, good morning, Ai-kun! How are you feeling?" Hakase spotted the girl when he passed the room, carrying a frying pan with him.

"I'm...fine, Hakase. Uh, what time is it?"

"It's seven in the morning and we've made you breakfast! Would you come over or should I bring it to your bed instead?"

"...No," _We?_ "I'll be there soon." Who's _we?_

Hakase grinned and disappear merrily. He never looked so happy than just now, didn't he?

The girl stood up from her bed and headed to the bathroom to clean herself up. After that she went to the dining table and noticed a certain detective boy sitting on the chair.

"Kudo-kun? What are you doing here?"

"Why, good morning to you too, Haibara," he said with sarcasm, "you look well."

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you," she said while sitting on the chair opposite to him, "but what are you doing here?"

"What else do you think? I stayed over last night."

"Why?"

"What's with the questions, Haibara? I can be here whenever I want, right Hakase? There's nothing wrong with that..."

Hakase only smiled while serving Haibara's breakfast. My, it smelled good. Haibara felt suddenly so hungry, she couldn't even remember when the last time she ate. Hmm, that tuna looked delicious... But, wait. Focus!

"No, something is wrong," the blonde said, "First, you rarely spend the night here. And second, if you _do_ spend the night here, it's mostly because of cases...or..."

Conan's eyebrows furrowed as the voice trailed off.

"Is it about the organization?" her eyes widened for a second. Hakase sensed the panic and waved his hand frantically in front of his face.

"No, no, no! It's not something like that, Ai-kun. Shinichi-kun was just staying over because he wanted to-"

"I-I just wanted to try Hakase's latest game!" Conan cut off Hakase's words just in time. He couldn't imagine what happened if Haibara find out that he's investigating her. Oh, the world would end, "R-right, Hakase?"

Haibara blinked. _Hakase's latest game? Oh, that's so lame._

"Oh! That's right!" Hakase sounded nervous so sudden, realizing his mistake, "Anyway, Shinichi-kun, why don't you go to school now? You don't want to be late now, right?"

"Ah, yes! Uh... I'll be going then, Hakase. See you soon, Haibara. Bye."

And with that the detective rushed to the front door, escaping the suspicious glare from a certain strawberry blonde. Hakase quickly took Conan's plate and excused himself to the kitchen, avoiding anymore question from the young scientist. Haibara, however, smiled as she played with her spoon on her food, suddenly find it very amusing.

The figure of Conan in her room last night came into view.

"Idiot," she whispered to herself, a hint of red appeared on her cheek.

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The young detective panted, and halted to nearby wall. _Damn, Haibara! You just make it harder..._ Conan adjusted his breath for a while, and took a step to his school once his under control again. He stuffed his hands on his pockets, mind's deep on thoughts.

_I need to calm down..._

Few steps later, he smirked. He took his cellphone and dialed certain number from the contact list. It didn't take so long until somebody on the other line picked up.

"Hello, Okaa-san?"

"Ah, isn't it Shin-chan? Hello, honey! It's been a long time since we hear anything from you!"

"Yeah, I know, I'm sorry," Conan apologized quickly, "But, Okaa-san?"

Yukiko sensed something else in her son's voice. Her tone became serious in an instant, "What's wrong, honey? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. But listen," came the stern reply, "I need your help."

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**TO BE CONTINUED**

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><p><strong>AN: **Uh, I remember promising that the adventure will be revealed on this chapter, but it's harder than I thought to picture the whole situation. Why don't you hit that cute review button and tell your opinion? I'd be most delighted to hear from you. ^_^

Next chapter: Our beloved scientist's secret finally revealed. What does the puzzle is about? Is Conan able to break through her and make her talk?


	3. The Secret

**Thank you for all the reviews so far^^ It gave me courage to write more… Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**NOTICE: This story is now rated "T", just in case...**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Detective Conan**

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**CHAPTER 3 - The Secret**

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_Okaa-san, can you tell me how to make a woman talk?_

_Sure, dear. All you have to do is to make her trust you._

_And... How is it, to make a woman trust you?_

_Stop being a detective, Shin-chan. Be a man..._

Conan rubbed his eyes that morning, still dazed from a restless sleep. Her mother's words from yesterday morning still echoed in his dream. He got on his feet and dragged himself to the bathroom. He stumbled his knee against its door on his way.

"Morning, Shinichi-kun," Hakase greeted from the livingroom.

"Morning, Hakase. You woke up early," commented Conan, yawning and stretching his back.

"I did," smiled Hakase, slurping his hot cup of coffee.

Conan dropped himself on the couch next to him, obviously still too tired to start the day. Well, he should be tired. He's been up almost all night searching for clues in the lab while Haibara was asleep. It would be soon before she got her strength back and he won't be able to do anything in there when it happens. So he spent the night in the lab as long as possible to look for any hint remains because it may be his last chance. The result, though, wasn't quite satisfying.

He's been stuck with the Japan map and dates thingy, and it didn't develop any further. He searched for more possible notes in the lab, but all he found was chemical equations or something that resembled DNA structures. He suspected that it was some kind of code and he attempted to interpret it, but all he got was those black lines under his eyes.

"You okay, Shinichi-kun? Did you sleep well?" Hakase eyebrows wrinkled.

"No, obviously," Conan scoffed, "is Haibara up yet?"

"She's at the lab," Hakase simply answered.

"But she's just recovered, would it be a good idea to let her in there so soon?"

"Yeah, but she promised it would be just an hour and she needs to check few things... Well, I thought an hour won't hurt," Hakase shrugged and sipped his coffee, "she seems to miss the lab so much, you know, after those two days off."

"She's working on something, isn't she? Besides the drug, I mean," the boy wondered in thoughts.

"Maybe it's about time you ask her directly, Shinichi-kun. I know you've been in the lab and found few things, but you won't get anywhere unless she tells you herself."

"I know," Conan's voice was low, almost mixed with a faint sigh, "but don't worry. I know what I'm doing."

"Yeah, sure, Shinichi-kun. I know you do."

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Okay, he had to admit this. _The great Shinichi Kudo_ had to admit this. He was nervous.

Not that he never really experienced such feeling before. Sure, he got nervous all the time when he's after bad guys, or when he's about perform crazy stunt in certain cases, or when Ran said things rather itchy or did things rather cutely... But despite his nervousness on those occasions, he always knew that everything's going to work out okay and he'd be able to solve things as expected. That's just how things normally work with Shinichi Kudo.

But this time was different. He was nervous because he's made up his mind to challenge Haibara Ai, of all other people. And now, the scariest thing was happening. He had to reveal the true face of the strawberry blonde by using no special tools or equipment (or mind-reader device, he hoped), making he's pretty unsure about which step he should make, or when.

The detective boys ran happily in the desolate street, poking each other and shrieking randomly several times. Conan walked lazily behind them, hands tucked in his pocket as he often did. Haibara also walked calmly next to him, but he noticed the hint of frustration (or tiredness?) from her when he threw a glance to the young scientist. Normally, he would search for something to tease her, but something else occurred in his mind.

_Now._ His mind ordered him.

He cleared his throat.

"Uh, Haibara, are you okay?" he managed to speak finally, "you look exhausted."

"During the recovery process, hormones and fluids changes quiet dramatically to make your body function normally like before. So the body will have to adjust to these changes and that make you look tired at times," Haibara explained (or lectured) the boy in nonchalant manner, making Conan's concerned face dropped instantly.

_Don't take her bait, Detective! Remember your purpose!_

"Sure, but," Conan took his hands out of his pocket and rest them on the back of his head, trying to act as cool as possible, "sometimes tiredness is caused by changes in the mood as well. You know, emotionally."

Haibara didn't respond to this. Good, she silently justified his premise. This is a sign for him to go on, just a little bit more...

"Is there something on your mind recently?" he felt a slight nervousness again just by asking her that question, but he continued anyway, "Mind to share?"

The girl shot him a weird look for a second, as if in disbelief. She opened her mouth to speak her mind, wanted to tell him to mind his own business. But she quickly changed her mind and continued walking. Conan took it as a sign of defense, and he knew that she won't tell him if she didn't want to. Not a good news. He unconsciously scratched his hair, looking for best options. Maybe he should drop this subject and stop his pursue. Confront her directly was against his idea in the first place anyway...

Suddenly, his Mother's voice took over in his mind.

_Stop being a detective, Shin-chan..._

_...Be a man._

Conan took a deep breath, silently cast his prayer and gulped. _Here we go..._

"It must be hard to deal with all this. The false identity, the drug..." Conan made his voice as light as possible, preventing Haibara from smelling his real intent, "but as long as we're together, I'm sure we can do it."

"I've been living this kind of life long enough now, Kudo-kun. It's kind of late of you to say that now," she said and wanted to add that he's acting weird too, but she chose to enjoy this rare occasion a little bit longer. Haibara averted the gaze from the detective, mainly to hide her small blush on her cheek and said, "but thank you."

Conan's earlier nervousness now a little bit gone and was replaced by a glimpse of confidence. Finally! A hint of success! Maybe he could do it afterall.

"Do you miss your old life, Haibara? I mean, without the organization and all."

"Do you?"

"I do miss it so much! Solving cases were much easier with my grown up body! It's easier to gain more fame!"

"….And easier to be a jerk."

"Oi, don't be that rude."

Silence; few scratches on Conan's head; more hint of boredom from Haibara's face. The detective boys now halted in front of them, just to say goodbyes and they parted. Conan tensed as the silence continued. He's about to speak when the strawberry blonde broke it.

"Now, since you bought that up…," she started, "the antidote's still need quiet some time, Kudo-kun. Working on it is harder than I predicted."

"Well, it should never be conducted by one person only, I suppose. There should be a group of scientist to work on that," Conan exhaled, "but at least you've come out with the prototype, which I thought is really amazing. Though the effect is still temporary."

"The prototype is still half way there, Kudo-kun."

"Huh?"

"Though it seems almost perfect, it's still 50% of total progress."

"How come?"

"You see, everytime the prototype takes effect, it's successfully reverses the Apoptoxin's previous state and you can go back to your normal body. However..." Haibara met the eyes of now serious detective, "your antibody reverses the effect back at certain point, making you shrink to your previous kid form."

"I see. So we need different compounds to make similar effect as the prototype, or..."

"….or, find a way to make the antibody get friendly with current formula, which is not an easy thing to do because you have to alter the DNA and all..." Ah! That explain the DNA-like structure sheet of paper Conan found that night. "You can kill your antibody to let the prototype have permanent effect if you want to, but that's suicide, and just plain stupid."

"Wow..." was all Conan could say to such difficult situation Haibara had to deal with everyday, "so you overworked yourself lately for that?"

"I've always been working on that since the beginning, idiot."

"No, that's not what I meant, but…," Conan tried to convey his meaning about his invention of strange notes and everything. The detective instinct told him to push his luck a bit further, but some _new instinct_ told him to wait.

He frowned. He decided to obey the latter.

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After a brief argument with Hakase later that night, Haibara was allowed to work in the lab under certain rules. She inhaled before entering the room, and walked straight to the PC. Her hand reached for the headset and put it on her ears. Her delicate fingers danced in the dark, typing some combination and keystrokes to the keyboard. Few seconds passed, and she rested her head on the backrest, mind lost in muse.

"Okaa-san..." she whispered to the voice over the headset, "what to do now?"

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Conan was sitting on the couch; the TV in front of him had been turned off hours ago. In this silent livingroom, nothing can be heard except Hakase's snoring that broke through his room once in a while. The boy put his glasses off the table, his eyebrows knitted in reflex. He shot a glance to the stairs that lead to the lair of certain strawberry blonde and checked his watch. _Damn, Haibara. It's past midnight already._

After knocking the door, he opened it without waiting any reply. He's here to remind her about the rules and about to drag her himself by force if necessary. Quickly he spotted her in front of the PC where she was also fixed her eyes to him.

"Just to remind you..." he started with firm tone, "that it's midnight already and..."

She continued to stare flatly to the detective, waiting him to finish his line. But the small figure near the door just stopped in the middle of his own words. She heard him sighed after a few seconds and she wondered what's on his mind.

"Are you done yet, Haibara?" the boy rephrased his previous line with totally different expression.

"Huh?" Haibara blinked. She didn't expect such...gentle voice.

"Are you done yet, you know, with whatever things you're doing there?"

"Er.." Haibara honestly couldn't find anything to say, or retort.

"'Cause, you know, you can get sick again if you force yourself too much," Conan shifted his feet, feeling uneasy for himself from saying things _like this_ to her. This is just too weird! And the young scientist admitted the same thing. She gazed upon the detective with puzzled look before she relaxed herself because she's been tensing up since the boy came.

"Mind if you give me 30 more minutes?" Haibara said with a curve on her lips, Conan didn't know if it was supposed to be a smile or something else.

"Okay. But just this once," he grabbed the door knob and opened the door, preparing to leave, "I'll be here in precisely next 30 minutes, so you better finish your work."

"There won't be no need," she put down the headset to the table near the monitor, fingers already busy with keyboard once again, "I'll come out before then."

With that, Conan left the basement and headed to the sofa upstairs.

_Am I doing this right?_

The strange feeling he experienced hadn't gone yet.

…_Okaa-san? _

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**-0-**

**.**

It's Saturday, and Haibara had woken up in her bed instead of the lab. Agasa Hakase noticed her from outside and greeted her with a large grin, obviously happy that she didn't forget the rules. Haibara then cleaned herself up and went to the dining table to find something to eat. Then she noticed a certain boy had been sitting on one of the chair and he was smiling at her. But that was that.

She grabbed the toast on the table and sat down too, ignoring the smiling detective.

"Are you gonna work in the lab again later?" he said with a full mouth of toast.

"Why?" she asked without seeing him.

"Nothing. Just asking," he shrugged, but didn't pursue her to his unanswered question. "Damn, you're so lucky you have something to do to kill your time. All I can do now is just whining around and waited if _something_ would happen so I can use my brain..."

Haibara only examined the boy with her eyes, then took a slice of toast to her mouth. Silence followed later, because somehow she forgot how to tease him whenever he's complaining and grumbling. Instead, she's thinking of something a bit seriously right then and she made up her mind.

"Well, are you interested in solving any mystery then?"

"What kind of mystery?" Conan's face lightened up for a bit. Will she finally tell him?

"Are you coming, or not?" the young scientist now stepped down from her chair and walked towards the stairs to the basement. Conan jumped from his seat and followed her obediently.

**.**

**-0-**

**.**

"Remember when we found secret tapes in my father's house?" Haibara turned the door knob and pushed it open.

"Yeah, your sister hid them for you," Conan recalled, "what about it?"

"As you've already known, those were gifts from my mother, organized to be played from my eleventh 'till my twenties birthday," she switched on the power to the PC and sat in front of it. She gestured to the chair near her and Conan sat down without any words. It's very rare that Haibara told something private to him, so he decided to keep his mouth shut and listened, "it's really nice of her, really."

Conan only smiled, imagining a small figure of Haibara was happily listening to the tape and hearing from someone really meant for her.

"Anyway," Haibara now typing really fast to the keyboard and a window of black and white showed up on the screen, "I managed to save the recording and saved it on this PC for convenience purpose…"

Conan's eyebrows knitted, he didn't remember finding any audio file in that PC when he first investigated before.

"….and put some security on the files to prevent unwanted piracy..." she now moving the mouse to some folder and typing something on the black terminal at times. Conan was now aware that Haibara's computer skill was beyond his imagination, "but on my twenty-first birthday present, I found something on my mother's message."

"Twenty-first? I thought you-"

"Yes, I know. I can't hold my curiosity and wait for next three years to listen to it," she frowned.

"Uh, okay," Conan silenced himself, "so you found something?"

"Put this on and listen for yourself," she ordered and give the detective the headset. The boy only stared to her with confused look.

"Are you sure it's okay for me to listen to this?" Conan took the headset and looked Haibara in the eyes, just to make sure. The girl's blue orbs were gleaming in the flash of the screen, looking right through him as well.

"Yes, Kudo-kun," she affirmed, "I need your help to decipher it."

.

.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

**.**

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><p><strong>AN: **Phew, finally I could start the beginning of the adventure. Hope you like how's the story going and I'll look forward to post the next chapter. Soon, I hope.

Anyway, please let me know your opinion whatsoever about this fics so far. Quick! Hit that review button! \^_^\

Next chapter: What's the recording is about? Will Conan solve the puzzle Haibara entrusted him with?

See you in the next chapter!


	4. Treasure Hunt

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Detective Conan**

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><p><strong>.<br>**

**CHAPTER 4 – Treasure Hunt**

**.**

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"Are you ready?" she asked to the boy in front of her. Conan only nodded and fixed the headset to his ears, "alright, here we go."

Conan concentrated hard, his heart was thumping frantically in anticipation on what's he's about to hear.

"_Click,_" Conan inhaled,"_So, Shiho dear, you have to listen carefully, this should be quite easy._"

Okay, he's listening.

"_Be at the first bar I visited when I came to Japan. It's the same place I'm recording this right now, by the way, which I thought it's the most convenient time because there's only few people here. Well, I don't want to waste this beautiful night alone by myself, so I figured I want to talk to you and make you a surprise! So here I am, talking to a recorder in this very place. Ask your sister, she should have known about this bar too…_"

The first impression of Conan about this tape was: it's poorly recorded. Few noises could be heard throughout the tape. He wondered if it's broken or something?

"_After you find this bar, go inside and order two glasses of your favorite drink. You should be old enough to drink in your age by now, since this recording is for your 21st birthday. And you should be able to deal with things to make your way to the bar..._"

Okay, so this is the clue to some bar, which explained all the bizarre notes he found days ago. It all made sense now! The browsing history of night clubs and bars, scattered locations across the map of Japan, the notes about the years... She was trying to find out about this bar!

"_Anyway, don't order anything else and find a spot on the corner of the bar, and wait there 'till the bar closed. The bartender will come to you and when he'll ask you to go home, just tell him that I send you. Well, just say that Elena had sent you, and he'll understand the message because he's a good friend of mine, and I told him you'll come by to retrieve something._"

Haibara noticed a hint of excitement from the boy.

" _So he'll drag you to the place where he had the present for you; a present for your birthday from me, that is. After this, your business in the bar is over and you can go straight home. If you're in a hurry, don't waste your time and make your way back as soon as you can. But if you want to stay a bit longer, make sure you don't get lost amongst those people around you. Don't be such a fool like me. This is just a world of endless festival anyway. Just remember, whenever you are, the fireworks are always there to be your guide. Happy birthday again, dear, and open your present!... Beep… Beep…_"

"That's it," the strawberry blonde pressed some key on the keyboard and the recording stopped, leaving Conan in different world somewhere in his mind. Haibara was impressed that the simple recording could catch his attention and brought him on his detective mode. She wanted to tell him jokes about how silly he looked like right then, but there was something different on his eyes that made her patiently wait for his consciousness.

It were the same pair of eyes that made her let _him_, of all other people, to cross the barrier and show him a small part of herself.

"This tape is weird…," there finally came his voice. He let go of the headset and sat straight facing the girl in front of him.

"Uh, yeah. I found it difficult to interpret the meaning too," she slightly frowned and averted the gaze, "her lines are ambiguous. I'm not sure which clue is real or just metaphor."

"Is there any clues from the other tapes? Maybe your mother ever said anything about the bar, or-"

"No. I've gone through all the tapes prior to this one, and there's no hint of any bar whatsoever," she cut Conan's words firmly and shot him a glare, "and I won't let you listen to any of them, if you're wondering."

"…Right," Conan was taken aback of her reaction. Surely it was just a simple question for her as part of his job being a detective, wasn't it? Wait, is he being a detective again now? Does Okaa-san's rules apply in this kind of situation too?

Haibara's still facing him and shot him a 'well?' look. He resumed to his thought and tried a different approach.

"Your mother said that you should ask your sister," he told the girl carefully, because the subject of her sister was never really something you would want to talk about with Haibara. "Did she ever mention anything about it?"

"No. I tried to remember anything she ever said to me, but I can't recall any bar or something…" she exhaled audibly, "listen, do you think it's some kind of code? I thought you could give me different perspective about this."

Conan didn't answer; he's back to his muse once again. His deduction told him that 'ask your sister' phrase was explicit, and Haibara's mother instructed her to do so. But the problem is, there's no way he could ask Akemi Miyano right now. Even if he would ask her ex-friends when she was using Masami Hirota identity, he doubted that Akemi ever told them anything about it. In other words, they're stuck.

The detective glanced to the girl once again, which was looked as emotionless as ever. But no, she must be desperate inside. He couldn't bring himself to tell her that's this is impossible, but he couldn't find opportunity to reveal her mother's message because every source of information is unavailable.

He opened his mouth, considering which line he's going to say to make her less hurt. He gazed upon those blue orbs, trying to catch every glimpse of sparkle, wanting to teleport his unspoken words. For a second he was lost at those sparkles, and a familiar jolt in his heart greeted him.

_Wrong. There IS another way._

"I'll be right back."

Quickly, he jumped off the seat and rushed to the door, leaving the girl in confuse. Of course there is still another way! And he will go through it until the riddle is solved and Haibara didn't have to waste her time and strength upon this thing. Damn, he could even say that this is _his_ responsibility, not hers. And he was quite upset that she didn't tell him in the first place. She didn't have to get sick and conduct those secret investigations all by herself…

But, no. He might be upset. But he was also thankful that Haibara would want to share with him.

He let out a small smile on his lips before he completely disappeared. It was a blissful one.

**-0-**

"What is it, Cool Kid?" a tall beautiful blonde fixed her glasses and sat down in front of Conan, legs crossing in elegant manner, making few men in the café gulped hard, "you said you want to talk to me~"

"Yes, Sensei! I did!" the boy replied with well-trained high-pitched voice, resembled those of a real kid's, "I'm sorry to bother you but I have a request!"

"My, my, Tantei-kun. There's no need to be so formal around me!" she told him playfully, "what can I do for you?"

The waitress approached and served them beverages, leaving with small polite smile while shot Conan a look that indicated she wanted to hug the boy and cuddle him. He responded with even bigger and innocent smile to the waitress before she left. Jodie-sensei was impressed at the act and wasn't aware of what might happen next.

"You see, Sensei, I know that it's crazy, but…," his fake voice was dropped in an instant and looked seriously to the teacher, "I need to speak to Shuichi Akai."

The smile in Jodie's face was gone.

"You know, Kid. Agent Akai is dead," she answered calmly and folded her arms in front of her chest, "there's no way we could speak to him."

"If it's impossible for me to meet him, please tell him to find me instead," the detective said with dangerous smile, "would you, Sensei?"

**-0-**

It was two hours after Conan's hasty departure from the basement did Haibara Ai came outside. She didn't feel like spending the precious day-off to carry out another experiment. No. The experiment could wait. In fact, she preferred to postpone it until she got an explanation from him about all his strange behavior for the past few days.

As long as she could remember, it started somewhere around after she got sick. Then the next thing she knew, he would always trail after her back. She would see him everywhere! She ever caught him sneaking in her room, coming out from the basement, whispering things with Agasa, even staring at her! Just what in the world was he up to this time?

She needed fresh air.

The girl stepped upstairs and was greeted with warm sunlight. Her eyes narrowed to let her pupils adjusted to unfamiliar brightness, for she had been working in the dark recently. She spotted a bench near the wall and rested to let the warmth washed her body and mind.

"It's a beautiful day, isn't it, Ai-kun?" Hakase's voice broke through her mind, forcing her to come back to reality.

"Yes, it is," she said simply, clearly didn't want to elaborate. Agasa only smiled in understanding.

"Where's Shinichi-kun, anyway? I don't see him anywhere after he ate his breakfast this morning…" Hakase bit his lower lip, as if deep in thought. Haibara only shrugged and sighed. How the hell she knew about his whereabouts! That damn detective…

"Anyway, Hakase. Don't you think that he acted a bit strange lately?" She realized she didn't ask about him that much, but she felt she needed to voice her thought to lift some of her burden.

"Don't see that he did…" Agasa commented, his forehead wrinkled in disagreement, "what makes you think that way?"

"Uh, don't know… He's been here a lot lately without reason…" Haibara's voice almost gone into whisper, but Agasa knew what she meant anyway. He only smiled playfully at her.

"Don't you think that it's good to have him around?" he said almost teasingly.

Huh? Was it really good to have him around? Well, she shouldn't care about it, right?

All she knew was that those days with him had been remarkable days, and it was like she's been with totally transformed person. It didn't feel like being with the stubborn detective she always dealt with, or some selfish young boy who always think of nothing but his miserable life. It was like being with the person who promised to protect her, the person to whom she trusted with her mother's tape and a spark of her little hope.

"I don't know…"

Professor only grinned. Oh, how she's bad at lying.

**-0-**

That fine Saturday passed faster than she expected. Before she knew, it's already evening and Conan hadn't return from wherever he was gone into. Dinner was finished quickly and she found herself wrapped in her pajamas. Agasa was quickly gone into the dreamland after he hit his bed. Haibara let out a sigh and climbed to her own mattress.

But before she closed her eyes, her cellphone rang. It was a phone call from a certain detective. She pressed the call button and was about to say something when the boy cut her unspoken words.

"I know where the bar is. I'm going to your place now. _Beep._"

Haibara blinked.

.

.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

**.**

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><p><strong>AN: **This chapter was hard to write.

I didn't write the details about Conan's encounter with Shuichi on purpose, but I'll bring it out in the future ^^;

Anyway, I'm so sorry for the chaotic message. I tried my best to imagine how Ai-chan's mother would say them and I hope it's not too weird (or not too obvious).

The answer is on the next chapter^^. See you there!


	5. Treasure Hunt part 2

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Detective Conan**

* * *

><p><strong>.<strong>

**CHAPTER 5 – Treasure Hunt pt. 2**

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_So, Shiho dear, you have to listen carefully, this should be quite easy._

_Be at the first bar I visited when I came to Japan. It's the same place I'm recording this right now, by the way, which I thought it's the most convenient time because there's only few people here. Well, I don't want to waste this beautiful night alone by myself, so I figured I want to talk to you and make you a surprise! So here I am, talking to a recorder in this very place. Ask your sister, she should have known about this bar too._

_After you find this bar, go inside and order two glasses of your favorite drink. You should be old enough to drink in your age by now, since this recording is for your 21st birthday. And you should be able to deal with things to make your way to the bar. Anyway, don't order anything else and find a spot on the corner of the bar, and wait there 'till the bar closed. _

_The bartender will come to you and when he'll ask you to go home, just tell him that I send you. Well, just say that Elena had sent you, and he'll understand the message because he's a good friend of mine, and I told him you'll come by to retrieve something._

_So he'll drag you to the place where he had the present for you; a present for your birthday from me, that is. After this, your business in the bar is over and you can go straight home. _

_If you're in a hurry, don't waste your time and make your way back as soon as you can. But if you want to stay a bit longer, make sure you don't get lost amongst those people around you. Don't be such a fool like me. This is just a world of endless festival anyway…_

_Just remember, whenever you are, the fireworks are always there to be your guide. _

_Happy birthday again, dear, and open your present!_

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**-0-**

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"Shizuma Island?" Haibara repeated again. She was sitting on the couch and he was too.

"Yes, it's positive," answered the boy. There was a hint of pride in his voice. "Have you ever heard that Shizuma Island is best known as the Island of Festivals and Fireworks?"

"Yes," she said, recalling her mother said something about festival and fireworks too, but it didn't make any sense, "does it have something to do with this?"

"First, I remember distinctively that the tape was noisy. I thought your audio file was broken or reduced, but it wasn't. It was the voice of festivals in the island which was accidentally recorded in the background."

Haibara folded her arms and listened seriously.

"Second, your mother said at near the end of the tape that_ if you want to stay a bit longer, make sure you don't get lost amongst those people around you. Whenever you are, the fireworks are always there to be your guide._ She was just talking about the festival, nothing more."

"Okay, so she was at some festival. But why Shizuma Island?" Haibara question him with her signature nonchalant face, trying to suppress her overwhelming emotion.

"Your mother also said _if you're in a hurry, don't waste your time and make your way back as soon as you can,_" he said, "I think it's because you have to reach the island with ferryboat. I did a little research, and there's a limit of the ferry schedule in there. No ferries may leave after midnight. So that's why your mother suggested you to don't waste your time and go back soon ASAP."

Haibara was dumbfounded.

"Plus," he continued, "_This is just a world of endless festival._ Shizuma island is famous among the tourist because of its beauty and natural appeals, so the local people always carry on those festivals everyday and every month. In other words, it's endless."

"Wow, that's honestly is very interesting theory, Tantei-kun," Haibara admitted and let a small smile escape her lips, "but somehow I still doubt that it's really the right place."

"Well, there's only one way to find out," the boy grinned and gave her a mischievous smile.

"What do you mean?"

"If you want to be sure, we'll have to go there ourselves," he suggested happily, "so you can prove my theory and get your birthday present!"

"No, I never planned to go there, silly," she glared, irritated at the overjoyed detective, "First, it's dangerous. Second, even if you're coming, it's still dangerous with this body. And third, I think your theory has some flaws."

Conan's eyebrows lifted.

"_My_ theory has flaws?"

"Yes. I don't want to risk myself on such shallow deduction," she said simply, clearly enjoying making fun of him. "Like, how can you explain my mother's words about asking my sister? Have you asked my sister about this yourself?"

"You know it's impossible, Missy, so I decided to ask…" Conan's voice turned to doubt and trailed off, "…someone else…"

"Yeah? And who might that be?" Haibara's question is now more like an investigation. She asked him in playful tone, though. Her eyes are fixed to the boy's as if challenging him. But he wasn't able to see her back, because he knew where this conversation might lead onto.

"It was… Her ex-friend when she used her alias; it was Masami Hirota's friend…" he nervously scratched his hair and faked an innocent face.

"Liar," she chuckled, "you've been doing something lately, haven't you?"

"W-What are you talking about, Haibara? I haven't been doing anything."

"Really? Then where have you been all day? You disappeared after I played the recording to you, and then you came back at this time of hour, claiming that you've somehow solved the mystery?" she was now serious. There was no hint of playfulness in her voice. "Who was it, Kudo-kun? The person who's related to my sister… Who is it?"

Conan was defeated. He was now sweating hard in front of her. He grasped the edge of the couch, trying to flow his mixed emotion from inside his head. He couldn't tell her, but she deserved to know! He wanted to be truthful, but that will make her hurt! What to do, what to do now?

"Sorry, Haibara. I can't…" he whispered guiltily, his face was fixed to the floor, unable to meet her gaze. Yes, this is for the best.

Haibara examined him for a second. Disappointment flowed through her heart to her softening gaze. Then she was unable to look at the detective, and figured that it's unnecessary to stay with him. She lifted herself up from the couch and gained her composure before she spoke.

"Well, thanks anyway, but I won't go to the island. Not now, not when I'm twenty one, and not even when this kid body of mine grows up until it's twenty one. Never," she said without looking at him, "and please stop doing this, Kudo-kun. Stop being around me and pretend that you care. Just go home."

_No, no, no, no! This is so wrong! I do really care about you!_

"No, Haibara, wait!" he said when she was about to stepped away.

She halted and threw a glance over her shoulder.

"I'll explain everything," he lifted his face so that he can see hers. There was no response. _Damnit! Where should I start?_ "Yes, you're right. I've been meeting with someone, someone who's related to your sister…"

Haibara was still facing back against him, but her eyes are fixed to his blue orbs, demanding for more details.

"It's agent Shuichi Akai," there's a slight tremble on his voice, "he was your sister's boyfriend."

The girl blinked. _Onee-chan's…boyfriend?_

"S-Sorry, it must be all very strange because Shuichi Akai had died. But the truth is, he hadn't. This information is a top secret, even amongst the Bureau itself. So not many people know that he's still alive…" he clumsily explained. "Anyway, I know someone who can make contact with him, and purposed to meet Akai this morning. He did come and we met..."

"Wait a minute," Haibara turned to face the detective, "You said he was my sister's boyfriend?"

Oh, dear. Here comes the hardest part.

"Ah, right…" he gulped down his throat and halted for a few seconds, unable to choose good words for his explanation. "You see—"

"Hmm?" Haibara's face was now more demanding than ever. _Just say it, Detective! Spit it out!_

Conan mustered up courage before inhaling the heavy air.

"It happened long time ago when Shuichi Akai was ordered to infiltrate the Black Organization… So he used fake identity to enter and try to destroy it from within," he said up, defeated. "That's where he met your sister and they dated…"

_Akai was once in the Org? And Onee-chan was dating…_him_?_

The young scientist instantly lost in thought. She had of course suspected that her sister was dating someone, but not like that! She knew how her sister hated the organization so much, so why? And now that Akai is—or was—an active FBI agent, it meant that _they_ most probably had found out his identity and kicked him out of the Organization! But if that's really the truth, then there's a possibility that the true reason of her Onee-chan elimination was—

_No way…._

"What's his codename, Kudo-kun?" Haibara voice's shuddered.

"….Rye."

Rye? _That_ Rye? The traitor of organization was actually Shuichi Akai who only used her sister and be the very cause of her death? And moreover, that baka detective happened to know _everything_ about it while she didn't? Oh, this is just too much.

"How long have you known this?"

"For a while now, I guess…" Conan shifted his feet uncomfortably.

"So you've been keeping it from me all this time?"

"I-I'm sorry, I was just—"

Haibara couldn't take it anymore. She turned around and rushed to her room and closed the door in loud bang. The detective was glued to his seat, clearly unable to handle this kind of situation.

He took nearby pillow and groaned in frustration with all his might.

**.  
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**-0-**

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That night was a rough one for Conan; he spent most of it with lying consciously on the couch and stared at the ceiling. The earlier confrontation with Haibara was still on his mind, and he had hard time to think what's best to do about it.

All he knew that he hid that information from her because he wanted to protect her.

But it seemed that he did it all wrong.

He promised to protect her himself, and he's been using that promise to act or decide things about her fate. But he always made the decision on his own, and never considered which protection he's allowed to give and which wasn't. He realized it now that there are boundaries. He shouldn't keep her away from her right just because he promised he'll protect her. There are things she fully deserved to know too.

Was he being overprotective? Or was he just being selfish?

How he want to curse himself for being so dumb about woman.

**.  
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**-0-**

**.  
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Sunday morning emerged, and certain strawberry blonde was walking like a drunk to the dining table, clearly in high needs of caffeine.

There, she spotted a certain boy sitting straight at the couch, tensing up at her presence.

She just walked past him and quickly made her coffee. Conan gulped hard and opened his mouth to say something. _Damn! What should I say?_

"Want some?" she asked with no expression and without looking at him.

"Uh…yes?" he answered to the sudden question in confusion. His heart beat fast upon hearing such unpredicted words from her. Few seconds later she approached with two cups of hot beverage and handed it to him in silence.

Haibara sat in the far corner of the couch, still in silence.

"D-Does it mean that you forgive me?" he would have been so embarrassed about his voice if he the situation wasn't force him to do so. He even didn't realize that he's playing with the handle of the cup in his hand. Why does he have to be so nervous about this?

"To tell you the truth, actually I'm still so pissed about this…" she said and sipped her coffee before continued speaking calmly, "but I figured it's not your fault, and it'll only be a damned waste of energy if I keep on blaming you over this matter… You already told me everything. That's enough for me."

_Uh, and that means yes or no? _Conan wanted to say but he held himself. He did, though, feel loads of crap had been lifted from his shoulders, making him silently exhaled in relief.

"Are you still interested in going to the island?" she asked.

"…Would you like to?" he asked back, turning his head towards her.

"I thought you'd be the one who want to go there the most, Tantei-kun," she pointed out, "to prove your theory or just expecting to find more case… I don't know."

Conan was thinking deeply over her suggestion to go to the Island. Had he been wanting so eagerly to come and discover what's this present was? It would be fantastic if, say, the present was actually a secret formula for APTX that had shrunken his body. That way, he'd be able to return to his normal form for good. That'd be great if he go to the island, right?

But, no. It didn't feel right.

Haibara was still patiently waiting for his reply. He looked at her and breathed.

"If you don't want to go there, nor do I… It's your present anyway," he said firmly, "if you wish to stay, so I'll stay."

Haibara was visibly smiling; she quickly took her coffee to hide it. Conan's heart skipped a beat and his nervousness came back instantly. He didn't know why, though.

"Actually, I would like to go there so much," she said finally. His head jerked upon her answer and looked at her intently. "But promise me one thing."

"What is it?"

"I don't know what you think of me, Kudo-kun. But don't treat me like a helpless princess who needs to be protected from everything."

"Well, I don't know if I could do that, because you know I never good at it," he scratched his back clumsily, "but I promise I'll try."

She pretended to think hard upon such idea and settled, "Okay, that'll do it."

"So…" Conan asked, "are we together on this?"

"Yes, I suppose," she stood up from the couch and headed to the kitchen.

The detective rested his back to the couch and slurped his still-warm coffee for the first time; he never felt any better than that Sunday morning. His heart was now filled with newly-founded warmth which he knew he'd be longing for more of it.

"So, Tantei-kun," Haibara came out of the kitchen and leaned against the wall, her arms folded and her feet crossed, "when will we leave?"

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**-0-**

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A tall blonde woman in black was standing casually in the cashier and waited patiently for the attendant to wrap her things. The attendant almost dropped one of them because her presence was too intimidating. She gave him a dangerous smile in her bright red lips before she left and he gasped in fear.

The woman tightened her black hat and fixed her sunglasses to cover her face more once she's outside the store.

She walked calmly to the van near the store where she was greeted with a young man in black shirt and headphone who was sitting and busy operating some device in the van. He had tanned skin and perfectly shaped body. On his left upper arm, there was tattoo in black of a head of a tiger which made his whole appearance looked so tough.

"Any news?" she asked, lips curving in elegant way to the man, which didn't seem to be affected by it. She sat down and gave him a loaf of bread, which directly grabbed by him rather forcefully.

"Where were you yesterday? I can't believe you leave me alone here," he pouted and took his first bite.

"My, my, I'm sorry, dear. I had few things to deal with Boss," she chuckled. The man handed her the headphone and gestured her to put it on.

"It's yesterday. It seems that _they_ had made contact," he explained. The woman listened to the voice over the headphone.

"_Shizuma island? Are you sure that it's the place?_" a voice of a boy was muffled, but it's enough to be heard.

"_Yes, Akemi and I were there once,_" a heavier voice appeared, "_Mind telling me your business there, Tantei-kun?_"

"_It's about Akemi Miyano's sister, but I can't give you the details,_" the boy said, "_Thank you, though. I owe you this one. _Beep_._"

"And that was it," the young man informed, "should we tell Boss about it?"

"No, you fool, that would be troublesome," the woman only smiled in excitement, "Prepare yourself, we're going there today."

"Without telling Boss or anyone? He wouldn't be very pleased about this, you know," he sighed, waving his hand through his too short hair.

"I know," she stood up and opened the door to leave, "that's why we have to make it quick, don't you think?"

**.**

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**TO BE CONTINUED**

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><p><strong>AN:** Remember when I said writing last chapter was hard. Well, this was harder. ^^;

This chapter is a start of something bigger between Conan and Ai (or Shinichi and Shiho). It's very challenging to describe the inner battle in Conan's heart to make him _see things_ more clearly now. It's about time he stop being a jerk, don't you think.

I hope I don't picture Ai too out of character.

The last van scene of the chapter was part of upcoming journey too! I'm really excited to write it!

And again, don't forget to share your feeling about how this story progresses so far^^ Give Ai-chan and Conan more support to prepare for the awaiting adventure in next chapter!

**More of A/N (trivial matter): **

So, Shizuma Island is my own creation because I don't know much about Japan's geography or places of interest. It's basically an island in which festivals is held every night, except in special occasion. There would be a lot of tourist and fireworks in there because it's supposed to be really fun place to be!

I'll try to give more details in the next chapter.


	6. Island of Fireworks

**A/N: **As one of DC fan, it's a shame that I don't really keep track of the manga, I know. But when I was in the middle of writing this story, I just realized that Gosho-sensei finally make the baka Shinichi to confess to Ran (in the Following Holmes arc, starting from chapter 743). It broke my heart, really. But it won't be fair if I let out all of my frustration and everything in this A/N, so I decided: screw it. I'm still attached to this sweet sacred bond between Ai x Conan (or Shiho x Shinichi), that's why I kept my spirit to write this fics. And for you who still support this pairing, I love you guys so much.

**Special Thanks: **Thank you for **Enji86**-san for her wonderful and constructive feedback to this story. Your perspective really opens my mind about different point of view whatsoever. I'll treasure your advices and hopefully improve in the future~ /^3^/

And of course thank you for all who's been reading and reviewing^^

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Detective Conan**

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><p><strong>.<strong>

**CHAPTER 6 – Island of Fireworks**

**.**

**.**

Agasa wasn't so surprised when Conan and Haibara announced their plan that very same day. In fact, he supported them and prepared some things to their journey. It was his latest invention of tracking glasses with better style and few additions in its function.

"Come on, Shinichi-kun! Do me a favor to test out this glasses, okay? Don't you think it look cool? It can even explode like the one in Mission Impossible!"

"Yeesh! Why the hell do I need glasses like that?" Conan snarled.

The older scientist kept on insisting and threatened that he would upload embarrassing picture of Conan naked in a local hot spring.

Conan hissed and agreed to carry the new glasses with him before he left.

.

**-0-**

**.**

It was in the afternoon when two adults in kid's body arrived at the station. Inhaling deeply, Conan took the first step to board the train; Haibara was clutching his jacket and followed him. Once they're inside, he took the time observing the girl. Right, she didn't wear any disguise today. No wonder she was tensing quite easily. He patted the girl's shoulder and telling her it would be okay.

In the next station, he brought her a pair of fancy oval-shaped sunglasses with yellow frame and red stripes on it. She pouted and refused to speak with him after he playfully suggested that she should act like a child to camouflage herself better.

But it won't be necessary; he noted that she already looked deadly cute on those glasses. He won't tell her, though.

Conan glanced his watch after they arrived at the last station. It's 4 p.m in the afternoon. He guided Haibara to ride a cab and they reached the harbor in 20 minutes.

They carried their backpacks on their shoulders and examined the view of the destination island. It was a small island indeed, with no high grounds or mountains. The island was completely surrounded with trees, except in the harbor area, which seemed to be the only access to go in or out.

They need to wait for the next ferry to cross. Conan offered Haibara to have some snack while waiting, but she said she wasn't hungry. The boy only shrugged.

The harbor was pretty crowded with tourist and travelers at that time, so they had difficulties on boarding it with those bodies. Conan was able to escort Haibara on the top deck of the ferry, so it's quite comfortable. Haibara didn't dare to enjoy the scenery as Conan did, though; she just sulked at the corner of the ferry bench. Conan looked at her for a while. He then sat by her side, saying that the scenery isn't really interesting anymore.

They stepped on the island for the first time at 5 p.m. and they were impressed at the sight of the harbor (Haibara even put her fancy yellow sunglasses off). It was a beautiful bay with green water and low firm cliffs surrounding it. There were only few ferries in there, preparing to leave in scheduled time. Conan couldn't help to exhaled in satisfaction, happy to know that they made it to the island.

"Alright, this is it," he smiled contently and turned around, facing the crowd of people in the entrance of the small town in the island. The boy then looked toward the girl beside him.

Haibara looked at him too with soft but firm gaze, heart thumping soundly in anticipation to their forthcoming adventure. She then turned around too, walked to the still-desolate bunch of people in front of them. Conan tucked his hands to his pockets and walked with her. Soon, they were out of sight and began their journey of the island.

Far behind them, a white van drove off the ferry ramp, honked lightly a few times to make its way through the passersby. A tanned-skin man was on the wheel, cursing under his breath when his van was hardly moving swiftly. He wore a sunglasses and sleeveless black shirt, revealing an intimidating black tattoo of a tiger on his left arm. A blonde woman on the passenger seat only smiled at the sight of frustrated young man beside her.

"Take it easy, Tora-kun. A huge van was never supposed to be in tiny island like this anyway, so the people haven't get used to it," she took her sunglasses off and threw a glance at the pine forest in the edges of the island, amazed to the color harmony with the green water beneath them.

"Heh, damn right. We're lucky that the ferry officer let us in eventually," the man scoffed.

"Thanks to my fake ID of a national TV reporter, I guess. They believe that we're here to report the festivals or whatever shenanigans they're holding tonight," the woman's lips curved in agreement, "have you prepare everything I told?"

"Everything's in order, Ma'am. They're in a safe place, including our cellphones and other GPS locators. I turned them off already," he said, "so practically we're no one can track us right now."

"Good."

"What did you say we're here for once again?"

"We're here to monitor few things, darling. We'll be just mere spectator," she smirked to the window, "Unless situation demands us to get involved. Who knows?"

"Just a spectator? That's unfortunate. It's been a long time since I practice my claws, you know," the man chuckled and cracked his knuckles playfully.

"Trust me, you don't want to do it here."

"I'm just saying, alright," he puckered his lips and turned the wheel; the van was heading to the forest, "what would you say to Boss when we're done here? He would be so pissed off."

"Let me handle him tomorrow," the woman put off her black hat and lifted her feet and bent her knees so they rested on her chest, "just worry about our secret mission tonight."

.

**-0-**

**.**

"Hmm. Nice room, don't you think?" Conan switched the electric button and brightness immediately brought better view of their room. It was the best they can get because most rooms in the village had been rented. It's never easy to find a place to stay in this kind of place, so he considered themselves to be lucky that they could get one. It was only an average-sized room, with one large bed in the right, a table on its side plus a beautifully decorated lamp on it, another table in the opposite side of the bed with two small armchairs near the wall, a small wooden wardrobe on the right corner, and a door to the bathroom was on the farthest corner of the room. The wall was ordinary piles of wood which looked rather creepy with no lights on.

Haibara put her bag and her sunglasses off the floor near the armchair and walked straight to the bed, letting out a small sigh of relief when she felt how comfy the mattress was. Conan did the same to his bag, put his glasses on the table, and settled to sit on the chair and rested his back.

"Feel tired?" he asked.

"Tired? No," she admitted simply, "Nervous? Yes."

"Of what?"

"Well, it's the first time I'm far away from home to do the most insane thing which might result in revealing our true identity and endanger our lives…"

"_You_ decided to go here on your own, remember?"

"Yes, and that's what I don't understand… I used to be frightened whenever I'm about to deal with my past, especially regarding the Organization. But now, here I am, still frightened as ever. But surprisingly committed to do it anyway," Haibara threw herself against the bed and titled her head slightly to look at the boy, "isn't that strange?"

"What makes you think that it's about the Organization? It was your mother who instructed you to be here, right? I'm sure she had the best reason of picking this place, so that it won't endanger you or anything," he said reassuringly, "Anyway, there are lots of people in this place! It's the last place _they_ ever want to be at!"

"I know, but…" she trailed off, looking for best words in the patterns of the ceiling, then she stopped in mid air when it failed. Conan observed the girl thoughtfully. He wanted to say that she's thinking too much, and most of her cautious presumptions often led to nothing but wrong reality. Conan bit his bottom lip, not sure of what to say to calm the girl.

He meant it when he said that he'll protect her. Was it not enough?

But he surprisingly stood up from his seat, taking something like a new glasses from his bag and put them on. He walked calmly to the door and pulled it open. Haibara shot him a where-are-you-going look and lifted herself up to sitting position.

"If it makes you feel better, I'm going to check the place first to make sure there's no suspicious guy or any possible threat. Nobody in the Organization recognizes me in this body, so it's safe for me to go on my own," he decided and smiled, "Besides, I need to test out Hakase's glasses."

"Wait, Kudo-kun," she spoke suddenly when he's about to pass the door.

"Hm?" the detective halted and turned around to face her, patiently waiting for her to continue.

"…Be careful…" she threw her face to some random spot the floor, cheeks reddening in such itchy words she just said. _Did I just say that to him? Does it matter? It's just words, right? But why in the world do I have to act like this too! Oh my God, does he notice how weird this is? Just go already!_

"Uh, sure," Conan was blushing instantly at such sight. He felt heat rising up to his face and felt the urge to leave the room immediately, or he would explode right there. The door slammed shut as the boy fastened his pace towards the exit, face still burning of some reason.

Haibara exhaled deeply in relief that Conan was gone. What the hell was that? All she remembered was she called him because she wanted to tell him something. She's considering to go with him to observe the place because she hated the idea of being alone in her room. But then she doubted herself. Her actions would be contradicted with her statement that she was afraid of the Organization. So going with him would just make her look stupid.

When he turned around and faced her, she's considering to ask him stay instead and no need to worry about the observation. But for what reason? To accompany her scared ass in the room? No, that would make her look so stupid as well.

She couldn't make up her mind until she felt really uncomfortable upon seeing Conan was patiently waiting for her, so she had to say something quickly or else, she would look so stupid either way.

The first thing that came out in her mind was 'be careful', so she said it unconsciously but deeply regretted it later when it sounded too weird. It sounded like she was worrying about his well-being, and she didn't know why it bothered her much. Then, thankfully he was gone in the next second and she felt she wanted to sink to the earth and die.

_Damn. That. Baka. I need to regain myself…_

Slowly, she stood up, walked to her bag, and unzipped it. After a short period of searching, she took out a small box and opened it. Two capsules of red-and-white were there still. Haibara let out a sigh out of her lungs, trying not to imagine what would happen that night.

.

**-0-**

**.**

Conan stepped down the porch hastily; the heat from his cheeks hadn't disappeared yet. Wait, was he nervous? Upon what? Just because Haibara was unusually acting so strange in front of him? It was nothing more but a simple words, and it was nothing more than a blushing Haibara who's saying them. And that simple motion just sent butterflies in his stomach and made his face heated up in all of a sudden.

Strange.

He walked down the street and thinking deeply. He never remembered being in such experience anywhere, or with anyone, before. Wait, he had. It's something about Ran giggling in the park when they went home together in the sunset, but it was long time ago. He remembered his heart was thumping hard back then, but he was sure that it wasn't as intense as it was with Haibara.

Wait. Did he seriously just think that?

The frustrated detective clenched his eyes shut and rubbing his hand frantically to the back of his head, clearing his brain from the thickening fog inside. He then was about to open his eyes when something hard was bumping on him.

"Ouch! What the- " he retorted, feeling pain on his butt when it hit the ground.

"Keep your eyes on the road when walking!" a big rough man with red short hair was standing high in front of him; one hand was carrying a backpack in his shoulder. Conan was so small compared to this man, so he apologized quickly and stood up to get off his way. "Watch it next time, would you?"

Conan rubbed his back to endure the pain and watched as the man walked passed him stoutly. He was a strong-looking man on his thirties, he guesses, probably worked as an army or part of law enforcement. His backpack was rumpled and too small for travelling bag, and his only wore flip flops. Does he live here? And what's with that brightly red hair? The detective then noticed something from the back of his neck. He recalled Agasa mention that his glasses had zoom-in technology, so he clicked on some hidden button on the side of the frame to catch a better view of the tough guy.

The image of the tattoo was clear now. It was a tattoo of tiger's head in black.

.

.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

**.**

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><p><strong>AN:** This chapter is full of long paragraph because there's a lot to be described. I especially enjoyed writing the room scene where Ai-chan and Conan were having peculiar times^^

More appearance of weird characters, ne? Well, their roles will become clear when next chapters reveal.

I hope you like how the story's going. Don't be shy to express your opinion whatsoever in the review page. I can't wait to move on to the next chapter!


	7. 10 Hours Limit

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Detective Conan**

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><p><strong>.<strong>

**CHAPTER 7 – 10 Hours Limit**

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**.**

He already had his changing outfit in his hands. The door was shut closed behind him, securing him in this small cold bathroom with its smearing darkness. His fingers soon were working to undo his pants, remove his remaining clothes, and waste no time to toss it on the floor. In his right palm, there was the pill.

The pill which always sent shivers down his spine.

He heard a muffled groan from the other side of the wall; Haibara must have started already.

And he should too.

.

**-0-**

**.**

"Welcome back," she greeted from the bed, sitting casually with her new clothes on. "You look rough."

"You know, I can't quite recall how many times I've taken that pill already, but the sensation of the pain remains the same," he complained and was still panting, but less frequently, "how are you feeling? Unlike me, you don't do _this_ much."

"Like you said, the process was painful still and my body's still suffering from this sudden change. Not to mention that we'll likely be transformed again in the matter of hours, but…" Shiho replied with her nonchalant trademark on her face, but the detective sensed nothing but honesty in there. "…I think I'll survive."

"That's good," he sighed and dragged himself to the table near the wall. His right hand reached for his wristwatch which he previously laid carelessly and slowly put it on his left wrist. He glanced at it in the process and it showed 9 p.m. Ah, right. He remembered Haibara had said about their time limit, but he'll ask her again just to make sure. "How many hours do we have?"

"Ten hours, approximately."

"Not 24 like usual?" the detective protested, but she only shrugged.

"It's especially designed for short transformation, so that you won't be able to do anything unnecessary with this body. The faster we could end this, the better," Shiho stood up from the mattress and put on her black jacket on top of her brown turtleneck. Her blue jeans fitted her perfectly, making Shinichi couldn't get the sight off for a while. It was until Shiho faked a cough when the detective snapped back to reality and muttered something like an apology.

"Okay. Shall we go now?" Shinichi took a few things from his half-opened bag and stuffed them on his pocket. Shiho recognized one of them as Conan's red bowtie. He noticed her confusion and explained, "just in case."

"I thought you said there's nothing to be worried about?" she demanded.

"There's nothing certain in this world, Haibara. Better prepare for the worst," the detective said and got up to the door, pulled it open, and gestured Shiho to move out the room. The latter obeyed and stepped outside.

"Ah, right. I almost forget that you're actually a natural lure of murders and crimes," she chuckled at his back when he was locking the door.

"I'll pretend that I didn't hear anything," he played the keys with one finger. They both walked the corridor and halted at the porch, "Whoa, it's getting crowded already!"

"The old man next to our door said that they gathered here near the center of the island to watch fireworks. It's supposed to be in the later at midnight, though," Shiho commented nonchalantly, "I guess we have to break through the crowds."

"I have better idea," Shinichi declared. He quickly grabbed Shiho's right palm and held it tight on his own. "Let's go!"

The two entered the stream of people, which appeared to be more and more crowded as the time passed. Most of them were spending the time waiting for the main attraction that night: Shizuma Island's signature fireworks. It wasn't all though. Lots of stalls with varied foods, accessories, games, etc, were everywhere along the roads. Lanterns and ornaments sparked in so many colors, making the Island seemed so alive amongst the gloom the night. Pubs and restaurants were also full with never-ending customers. So it's not really exaggerating if this Island was famous as the Paradise of Festivals.

But they're not there for the festivals or the fireworks, nor did they plan to enjoy some anyway. They had broken certain prohibition which no one else in this world had to: transformed in their 'real' form and tell the world who they really are. It's been a long time since they remembered being in those body and appeared as _them_, so walking and breathing as the adult 'once again' was affecting their nerves in some way.

Speaking of the nerves, Shinichi was more affected with _the other_ kind of nerves than those regarding the Organization and such.

As long as he could remember his experiences with his adult body, he never really experienced it with a teenage Haibara, or Shiho to be accurate. True, they had been known each other for some time, but he never acquainted directly with Shiho Miyano. Even when Haibara did transform into Shiho, he didn't had the chance to see _her_ personally.

So being with Shiho Miyano was totally brought Shinichi lots of nerves, especially after what he had been through last couple of days. He had secretly investigated on her for something he never really cared about before; risked his life to break her privacy; struggling to figure out the meaning of his mother's advice; and finally they had their first talk when he told her everything, and she sincerely accepted them. It had been an amazing, _amazing_ journey for him to get there…

…and he's quite liking it.

So, who said that they only there just to retrieve whatever thing from her mother? No. He will make the journey meant more than that.

"This Island is really something, huh?" Shinichi half-shouted, trying to make conversation between the crowds, "Ever think of stopping by and, I don't know, enjoy the festival for a little bit?"

"We have limited time, Kudo-kun. I'm sure you're aware of it," she lifted her free hand to defend herself from group of teenager who were moving carelessly in her way. Shinichi pulled her right on time before she was hit.

"I know. Sucks, right?" he tightened the grip on her hand and moved along. Then he cleared his throat and spoke up, "but, maybe, you would want to go… with me? After we're done at the bar, that is."

"Go with you? Go where?" Shiho blinked. There's no such thing as Shinichi-was-asking-you-out on her thesaurus, so she was kind of unsure.

"What do you mean, 'go where'? Here, of course! You know, maybe spend the night on the streets and all before we come back to Beika," he pouted and shot her a glare, "it's a shame we came all the way here and miss this whole thing!"

"I thought your only interest was only cases, Kudo-kun," she smirked.

"Hey, I can have fun too, you know," he frowned and glanced at his surroundings. Then he was back to her when their destination was still few blocks away. "So, yes?"

"Whatever. You're in charge here anyway," she shrugged.

"Really? I thought I'm just accompanying _you_. So practically we can go straight home if you want to," he faked a disappointment face and sighed, "but a little of having fun won't hurt, right? Just think it as a celebration after we had succeeded in your mother's treasure hunt. What do you think?"

Shiho almost laughed at his determination to make her go with him. The detective noticed her amused face and wondered if he had said something funny.

"Alright, since it seems that you're eager for it so much, but under few conditions. First, it's your treat. And second, as implied from condition number one…" she said calmly and smirked. "…you have no right to say no to whatever comes in my mind to buy."

"You know, I kind of prepare myself for that," Shinichi shot her an annoyed look and pouted, "but somehow you've made it sound harder than it actually is."

The girl held back a chuckle and shrugged light-heartedly.

A certain red-haired man with black tattoo on his neck was leaning casually beside nearby drinking pub, only few meters from the passing high school detective and certain scientist. Smokes of cigarette smeared through the air around him, making he's temporary invisible among the people. His trademark flip flops were still adorning his feet, but his clothing was different than before. Everything was in black, including a black leather jacket which covered his body and everything he could possibly hide beneath.

He was staring into the never ending crowds; looked as bored as ever. Then his composure broke when he caught a glimpse of certain strawberry blonde among the people, apparently with somebody else. He couldn't blink even once at the sight and stared almost unbelievingly.

It was until she was one block away when he hurriedly dug his pocket and took out a small photo of a nonchalant girl with lab coat. On the bottom of the photo, there was identification to the picture.

"Sherry…" he whispered.

Shiho snapped at once and spun around in shock, as if sensing familiar kind of aura which she'd already known too well. Shinichi halted and felt her grasp tightened so suddenly.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"It's— I thought—" she darted suspicious look to the crowds, only to be lost among the stream of people. She was hundred percent sure she sensed it for a good one second at least. But now it seemed that it had gone and vanished, leaving her wondering in confusion. False alarm?

"Hey, you okay?" the detective inquired.

"I'm fine. It's nothing," she had said and walked with him again. What was she thinking? Shinichi said it himself that this island was the last place _they _ever want to be at. There's too much people, too many witnesses. She worried too much.

The red haired man peeked through the wall behind far behind them. His fingers shuddered lightly against the photo and a devilish grin appeared on his face.

"…I found you."

.

**-0-**

**.**

"Here it is," Shinichi moved out of the crowds and gestured a local pub in front of him. Shiho needed to readjust her breath and stared at the building. It was ordinary pub with wooden walls and pillars, but the structure resembled more of modern restaurant; a unique combination of local and western culture.

"Shinkei pub?" Shiho read the plank.

"Yeah. Akai-san said your sister was here once with him. He didn't tell me anything else, though," the detective explained. Part of Shiho's heart twinge upon hearing that particular name and she decided better to end this soon, so she can leave this place.

"Shall we?" she stepped up the porch and pushed the door open, making a bell on the door jingled in the movement. She went inside and screened the room in cautious manner. Shinichi followed her before threw the last glance to the crowds in reflex, to make sure nobody's following whatsoever.

It was indeed a western bar with traditional interior. The tables and chairs are made of wood; lanterns and oil lamps were the only sources of lightning, making the atmosphere kind of gloomy. Few customers, mostly foreigners, were sighted at the bar. But none of them looked suspicious in Shiho's mind, so she proceeded to the bar.

A tall old man with black shiny beard and moustache greeted her from behind the bars. He wore a formal bartender uniform and carried a napkin with his left arm.

"My, it's a rare occurrence that a fine lady like you would want to visit our humble bar," he let out a wide genuine smile. Shiho noticed that the man looked like Pisco in some way, but their aura was totally different. This bartender was so nice and decent.

Shinichi joined them and sat on the chair immediately.

"Ah, so you're with someone? Good evening to you too, sir. First time to the Island?" the bartender threw an equally wide smile to the detective, "so what can I get to you both?"

Shinichi looked at Shiho, which was kind of unsure in some point. Her mother's voice came to her mind as she closed her eyes.

_After you find this bar, go inside and order two glasses of your favorite drink..._

She breathed and lifted up her head.

"Two glasses of Sherry, please," she said.

The smile in the old man's face was now gone.

"Are you sure, dear?" he said and cleaned two empty glasses with his napkin, "we have much lighter drink, if you want."

"She meant what she said, Ojii-chan," Shinichi broke in and smiled reassuringly to the man, "and in case if you're worrying, we're old enough to drink already."

Shiho gave him a thankful look and turned her head again to face the bartender.

"Very well, then. Anything else?" he friskily filled the two glasses and handed it to both of young teenager in front of him; a smile had found its way to his face again.

"No, thanks," Shiho quickly grabbed the glasses and followed Shinichi who already jumped off his seat and headed to one corner of the room, leaving the old man looking at them intensely with mind deep in thought.

"Phew, step one is done," the detective exhaled and sat on the chair.

"Yeah," Shiho put the glasses on the table, obviously never intended to drink them in the first place, "And now we wait."

Shinichi glanced at his wristwatch. 9.30 p.m.

"Yeah."

_Just a little bit more…_

_._

**-0-**

**.**

A long-haired man with black robes stood firmly in an apparently monitor room. Many screen showing different maps and locations were in front of him with three operators working on the keyboards. He clenched his teeth in frustration after his eyes scanning each of the monitor cautiously for the twentieth times that night.

_Damnit, Vermouth. Where are you…?_

He was about to order the operator to do more searches when a big guy with black coat called him from behind.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Aniki, but there's an emergency call from—"

"Not now, Vodka."

"But it's from Ouzo, he said he found _her_."

The man looked stunned for a second, then turned immediately to Vodka, wiping strands of his silver hair and grabbed the phone.

"This is Gin," he said, "speak up."

Vodka tried his best not to get too excited, but he could sense upcoming thrill is dawning upon them. So the traitor had been found, as Gin always predicted.

"Are you positive about this?"

Well, it's just a matter of time until she came out of her hiding place anyway.

"She'd better be there when I come to the Island if you still want to live. Understand? Good."

The phonecall had ended. Vodka tensed in an instant when his Aniki was passing him with his signature grin and his gleaming eyes.

"Prepare a course to Shizuma Island," he ordered, "we're going hunting."

.

.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

**.**

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><p><strong>AN: **So, yeah…Things should be quite messy now *facepalm*

And OH YEAH btw there's a **fanart** which dedicated to this story which described Ai-chan, Conan, Shiho and Shinichi in this fics. Make sure you guys check it out. The link is on my **profile page**! \^_^/

Anyway, just tell me how frustrated you all already about all this. The review section is the perfect place to let out your whole feeling (except for the rude one), trust me^^

Next chapter: finally, our beloved scientist and detective move on to the next step of Elena's message. Gin and Vodka are still on the way to the Island when the chapter's written, so find out what will happen next!


	8. Intruder!

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Detective Conan**

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><p><strong>.<br>**

**CHAPTER 8 – Intruder!**

**.**

**.  
><strong>

It was 10:30 p.m. when the old man from the bar was starting to close the place. No one was in there now, except for certain scientist and detective in the corner. It's unusual for a bar to be closed at this time of hour, but this particular bar was never opened past midnight. People are more attracted to watch the main show of the Island anyway, and most of them now must have been gathering on the center of the Island, so it's pretty quiet on the nearby streets.

The bartender approached the two and asked them politely.

"I'm sorry, but the bar is closing now," he bent over and smiled.

"We still have business here, Ojii-chan," Shinichi said and turned his head to the girl beside him.

"Yes. Elena sent us," Shiho casted the magic spell. The bartender nodded knowingly.

"I know, Dear, I sensed it since the first time you came," he straightened up and gestured to the door beside the bar, "please, come this way."

Shiho and Shinichi almost jerked up from their seats. Gosh, they had been waiting for this for a long time!

"By the way, just call me Andrew. Elena used to call me that," the old man smiled from his shoulder and pushed open the wooden door in front of him. He entered the hallway and reached the electric switch to turn on the lamp.

"Ano… Are you a friend of hers, Andrew-san?" Shiho couldn't help the curiosity she had been holding since the beginning.

"Sure, I've known your mother quite long enough, Shiho-chan," he said happily. There's a friendly manner in his voice which made Shiho feel comfortable and safe. But wait. Did he just call her by her name?

"Y-You know my name?"

"Why, sure," he said and searched his pocket for a key to a room at the end of the hallway, "We've met long time ago, when you're still just a kid. It's okay if you don't remember, though."

He unlocked the door and stepped backward to let the two youngsters go in first. They obeyed and entered the tidy room which looked like a small office. There was a table, chairs, a bookshelf on the farthest side of the wall and few photographs hanging around. Shinichi observed the nearest photograph; it was a picture of Andrew with a younger blonde woman in front of a huge house. He guessed it's not somewhere in Japan.

"So, Shiho-chan," the old man leaned against the table to support himself and facing his guests, "what brings you here?"

Shiho blinked. She had followed the instruction precisely without failing, should it be obvious as to why she was there? Shinichi also felt the same thing, though he just trying to be quiet and let her deal with this on her own. He only gave Shiho a supportive look to encourage her to go on.

"Uh, I thought… My mother said she had a present for me, and she asked me to go here to get it from you," the girl said, "did she tell you anything about this?"

Andrew was silence for few seconds, his eyebrows furrowed as if trying to recall something. Then his face was lightened up.

"Ah! Of course I remember about the present!" he exclaimed. Shiho sighed in relief. Shinichi shot a stare at the old man and wondered if he was joking or something. "But I'm terribly sorry, Dear. I'm afraid there's no way I can give you that anymore."

Shiho's relieved face dropped in an instant.

"Why's that, Ojii-chan?" Shinichi finally spoke up.

"Uh, you see… I used to have that present, but somebody took it from me about a year ago or something," Andrew sighed, "I'm really, really sorry. I tried my best to keep it, but he threatened to kill me if I don't give it to him…"

What? Who else knows about this? Her sister? Or… Was it _them_?

"Who took it, Gramps?" a hint of fury was in his voice.

"I don't know, Young Man. I wished I could ask his name after he pulled his gun from my head…" the man retorted, "all I know that he was all in black and—"

BANG!

The bartender flung backwards at the same time with cracking sound from torn glass behind him. His old body swept the table's surface before falling on the side of the table, leaving Shiho breathless and eyes widening in shock.

It was all happening too fast.

Too… Unexpected.

Shinichi's inner alarm went off, realizing that something bigger and dangerous was about to approach them.

He instinctively extended an arm to hide the girl beside him and jumped a step forward her. With quick move, he spun around to the door to encounter their guest.

It was the red-haired man he met at the street earlier this afternoon.

And he was aiming his pistol right to them.

.

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A woman in black inside a white van in the forest was listening intently to a speaker in her headset. She was sitting casually on the driver's seat with her arms folded and her shoulder tensed in a second. Her red lips were unreadable, maybe it's because of the poor lightning from the van that separated her from the complete darkness in the soundless forest, or maybe it's because of something that had just happened.

"That was—" the man in the passenger's seat sat up straight immediately and was tensing too. His eyes widened and his left arm pressed his headset tighter to his ears as if in disbelief. "Do you think that was—?"

"A gunshot indeed, Tora-kun," she cut off and affirmed. She sighed and rested her back on the backrest, but her mind wasn't as relaxed as she looked.

"Well, it seems that things start to get a little dirty now, don't you think?"

"…"

The blonde didn't answer.

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"You know, I was wondering why it took you so long to get out of this bar," the red haired man scoffed in front of two still shocked teenagers and grinned. The pistol in his hand was still aimed in full precision and his free hand pulled the door closed. There was a man down beside the table, which apparently couldn't be saved anymore judging from the amount of red liquid that pooled on the floor. "Apparently you've met a new friend, huh Sherry?"

Shinichi blinked. The stranger knows her? Could it be he's one of the Black Organization?

"Who the hell are you?" the detective demanded, "why did you shoot him?"

"Hey, I wasn't talking to you. You're so noisy," he said and dropped his grin, "I might have to silence you as well."

The tattooed man closed one of his eyes and aimed. His finger was slowly teasing the tip of the trigger. Shinichi was paralyzed; his body refused to respond to do anything.

A devilish grin was forming in the man's face. The trigger was moving now, closer, and closer…

And…

"W-WAIT!"

The trigger was halted in the middle. The man's both eyes now opened in attention.

The strawberry blonde pulled the detective and blocked him from his range, effectively making the red-haired man to cancel his fire. Shinichi, on the other hand, was still dazed from this action, unable to move and speak at the same time.

"Your business is with me! Don't drag anyone else into this!"

"Huh, is that so?" said the man in disappointment tone, "is he so special to you? A boyfriend of yours? It's not like I care, though."

Shiho didn't bother to respond to this. She knew that he was just mocking her to make him look superior.

"But whatever. He would die at the end anyway," he was now lowering his gun and grabbed nearby chair, moving it so close to him to sit, "Once Gin's here, everything's gonna be over. For you and for him…"

Her heart sting when she heard the particular name. There're just too much painful memories and too much fear in there, making her unconsciously pressed her arm tighter against him.

"Now, you have to listen to everything I say, and I'd leave you unhurt until the time comes," he was now sitting on the chair and positioned his arm so that he could still point the gun properly, "if you make any moves, I swear to God I'll shoot you like the old Gramps in there."

Shinichi followed the direction of the gun with his eyes, and spotted the previously downed bartender in the side of the table. The detective was suddenly possessed with silent rage. He swore under his breath to make them pay for this treacherous murder and injustice. He made up his mind that The Black Organization would end in his hand, and he wouldn't definitely miss this rare opportunity that finally he encountered with one of them in his best shape and form. He would use this chance to track them down and crush them for good, so he could protect innocent people like the bartender from unnecessary death and sorrow.

But not now, he breathed calmly and decided. The Black Organization could wait.

There's one more important thing he had to protect: the girl whose heart was broken, whose body was trembling against his own, and whose hope was shattered in pieces.

He had to protect _her_ and saved her from this place at all cost.

Ouzo pulled a cellphone from his pocket and pressed it against his ear with his free hand. His eyes never break the contact from his hostages and shot them a playful glare. The man in the other line picked up.

"I got her now, Gin, along with side dish if you want— Uh huh— Uh huh. Got it—"

Shiho's mind was blank upon realizing what's going on. This whole thing was so wrong. It was never supposed to be that way! They're just there to participate in her mother's game, weren't they? It was just a quest for her birthday, which didn't have anything to do with The Black Organization and all.

But it was happening. And worst, she was the cause of all this. Andrew had died. And soon, _he _too would die because of her.

Just did she ever learn?

Shiho was breathing heavily and trembling a little. She realized that this murder was only the beginning, and her worst fear was coming in no time. She felt a cold sweat dripping along her neck.

But then certain detective bent over to move closer to her ear and whispered.

"Don't worry, I'll find a way."

She heard a calm voice from her shoulder. It was so calm that she swore she felt save a little for a moment. But why, just why is it always her who needed to be saved?

She almost broke down when he brought her palm and held it tightly against his own, he's now standing by her side and familiar warmth flowed through his smiling face and tranquil eyes.

"I promise you'll be safe."

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The last ferry heading to Shizuma Island had arrived. Two men with black hats and black outfits stepped to the harbor and headed to the street. Vodka was speaking on his phone while walking obediently beside his partner, Gin, which looking around casually through his silver hair. When he was done with the call, he stuffed his phone in his pocket and took out a tiny device. A green grid view with red dots was visible in the screen.

"You found him?" said Gin in hoarse voice.

"Yeah, it's not far from here," Vodka replied.

"Good."

He couldn't resist a wicked grin on his face.

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"So let's start over, shall we? Since it seems that we haven't met before," the red haired man suggested playfully with his handgun pointing towards his opponent, "My codename's Ouzo, working under Gin's command. It's a pleasure to meet you, Sherry, and it's a pleasure too that I'm the one who finally catch the infamous traitor like yourself. Ha ha!"

Shiho's hand tensed under Shinichi's grasp when she heard Ouzo broke down in laughter. He lightly applied a gentle pressure to it to calm her down.

"Heh, enough about me. What about you, Sherry? You don't speak much," Ouzo said, observing the girl.

Shinichi sensed a cold smeared through her hand and her whole body.

_Damn it! What should I do now? I need to get her out of here and find a save place before it's too late!_

"I never knew exactly why they're so eager to find you, honestly," he leaned his back to the backrest and relaxed, "but like I said before, it's not like I care. All I care is that I finally be able to get out this damned Island and they'll gonna appreciate me and stop treating me like a dirt."

Shinichi wasn't quite listening, his mind was working in super speed to find out the best options he had. It was difficult, though, because this time he didn't have his powered shoes and ball dispensing belt. The only attacking equipment available to him was his stun-gun watch, and it was almost impossible to him because he's opposing a Black Organization agent here. He wouldn't hesitate to shoot anyone just because they like it.

They heard firm and constant footsteps from the hallway just outside the room. Somebody was coming.

That _somebody_ of their worst fear was coming.

Shinichi instantly froze.

_Come on, think! Think! There had to be some way!_

"Ah, so he's here," Ouzo stood up lazily and prepared to open the door, "good evening, Gi—"

A strong punch flew right to his right cheek, followed with a jab on his stomach and a final blow on his skull by her long leg making him crushed hard on the floor and unconscious immediately.

Shinichi and Shiho blinked. Just what the hell was that?

The figure lifted her head and faced the stunned teenagers. She was wearing all in black and a hat was blocking a view to her face, hiding most of her blonde hair underneath her jacket as well. Her red lips were smiling as she put off her hat and revealed her true identity.

"J-Jodie-sensei?" Shinichi's voice was full of bewilderment, "what are you doing here?"

"My, my, Cool Kid. At least thank me first," the FBI agent pouted and massaged her left punch, enduring stingy pain from the previous hit. She examined the downed agent and kicked the tossed gun aside for prevention. The pistol slide through below the table and hit a body in bartender uniform. Jodie's eyebrows furrowed when she spotted the dead man. Well, that explained the gunshot she had heard earlier.

"Yeah, thanks, but what are you doing here?"

"It's a long story, Kid. Just say that I'm here on my vacation and forget to tell my Boss about it," she gave him a playful wink eagerly before putting her black hat back on, "but now, listen. You have to follow my instruction precisely, or else I guarantee your life and hers would not be safe by tomorrow if you don't do exactly what I say."

"Uh, okay," the young detective calmed down and listened to her intently. He inhaled deeply to readjust his frantic heartbeat and clear his mind. So they still have a chance—no—_he_ still have a chance to save her anyway. He wouldn't allow the Black Organization to hurt her this time. "What should we do, Sensei?"

"I'm here with my FBI friend in a white van in the forest near the harbor. You go and meet him there. He'll escort you to the save place until we can handle this situation."

"Does your friend have a name?"

"He doesn't like to be called by his real name, but you can call him Tora-san if you like."

Tora? The tiger? Is that a real name or just a code like Ouzo and Gin? Oh well, he could save that later. He had someone to rescue now.

"I'll go now, Sensei," Shinichi quickly pulled Shiho by her hand and headed to the door, "please don't die."

"Geez, I can handle myself, Kid. Who do you think you're talking to?" she smiled and took out her semi-auto with her right hand quickly and put the magazine on from her pocket. Shinichi nodded and pulled open the door, examined around and was about to hurry to the emergency exit when he felt Shiho pulled his hand to halt. He looked at her for a second and found her facing the FBI agent to say something.

"Jodie-san…" she called out weakly; hand still clutching to Shinichi's and said, "…thank you."

"…You're welcome," Jodie said and let out a blissful smile, "now, off you go."

Shiho nodded and turned to Shinichi. He wasted no time to dash to the backdoor with her by his side. Jodie pulled the slider of her gun and peeked to the hallway. It was still empty. Good. Gin and his companion would reach that place and find the room anyway, so she decided she would stay inside and give a surprise instead.

The woman in black glanced the downed man out of curiosity, because she felt she recognized him somewhere. Her eyes scanned his body from his flip-flops and trailed up until she caught a black tattoo on his neck. Is that—

—_Tora-kun's tattoo?_

A cellphone was suddenly ringing and broke the silence in the room; it was from Ouzo's pocket. It's from _them_.

They're coming.

The FBI agent inhaled deeply and cast her silent prayer.

She bent her elbow and positioned her gun beside her head, which was now facing intently at the farthest door of the hallway to expect her match.

She aimed at it and waited.

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><p>"<em>Beep beep… Beep beep…<em>"

Vodka stuffed his phone to his pocket and took out his gun. Gin glanced at his partner and demanded his report. They were exactly facing the door of Shinkei Pub right now and they need to gather the latest status from Ouzo before they broke in.

"He doesn't pick up," Vodka said and pulled the hammer of his gun, just in case if something was really went wrong.

Gin was about to order to break the entrance when they heard a loud crack from the back of the building, followed by rushed footsteps fading out to the dark. Gin's instinct told him that somebody was running away, and he couldn't let that happen.

"Follow the voice, Vodka. Find out who that is," he commanded. Vodka instantly jumped from his side and run through the side of the bar, which separated from the next building so he's able to go straight to the back of the place. Gin pulled out his own gun and loaded it, stepping slowly to the porch and opened the door, making the door's bell jingled and echoed in the dark room.

The silver haired man headed straight to the door beside the bar with a gun ready on his side.

He smelled that something had indeed gone wrong.

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**TO BE CONTINUED**

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><p><strong>AN: **Aww, man. It took me longer to finish this chapter because my mood didn't cooperate with me lately.

Anyway, next chapter: Was their journey to the Island had turned to be a mistake?

See you soon. Hopefully.


	9. I Found You

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Detective Conan**

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><p><strong>.<strong>

**CHAPTER 9 – I Found You**

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That night, things were working as usual in Shizuma Island. It's less than an hour to midnight, and that means most people should had been in the center of the island and waited for the main event. Tourists and local people gather around the city square under the enormous sources of light in the area, making the small island shining from its middle and gleamed amongst the darkness. The attraction always drew the most attention for the people; hence it's normal for Shinkei pub's neighborhood to be quite desolate around this time of hour.

There were only few similar buildings along the streets, which covers only few blocks away from the harbor. The area was located on the farthest edge of the Shizuma City and the only thing that separated it from the sea was the pine forest that was almost as silent as grave every time, despite the fact that the Island should be hundreds times noisier in the night.

Because of this, part of Jodie was glad that there almost weren't any other people around the bar, so she didn't need to worry to involve anyone else into this unfortunate encounter.

She slowly aimed at the hallway. She heard the bell's jingling sound and that meant that someone had broken to the front door already.

She calmed down her breath and waited.

The red-haired man with codename Ouzo was lying on his stomach somewhere on the floor when some of his consciousness returned. A sharp pain suddenly emerged from one side of his head and his hand reached for it to endure the feeling. He slowly opened his eyes and held out a gasp when he noticed that there was someone _else_ in the room which didn't seem to realize his awaken. Suddenly, his memory about the previous happening was back and he felt a strong urge to take down whoever that stranger was.

He examined around with his eyes to look for his gun, but he didn't find any. Well, well. It seemed that he needed to do this with hard way.

He quickly got up on his legs and charged forward. The stranger wasn't move until Ouzo was only inches away and made a sharp turn to defend the back-stab hit.

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><p>Gin heard a noise from inside the door that apparently led to some hallway. There was a fight somewhere in that building and he needed to find out who they were. He wasted no time turning the door knob and examined the empty hall; the noise he heard was now more intense and louder. It was from the farthest door on the left.<p>

When Gin was about to stepped forward, the door suddenly slammed open in loud crash. A tall but slim figure in black was rushing away and jumped to the only window in the farthest wooden wall. It's broken in pieces in one second and the ghostly shadow had disappeared completely before the silver-haired man had the time to recognize who it was.

Gin considered hurrying up to after the person, but he halted and kept his gun aside.

He then walked slowly to the ajar door and opened it completely until his eyes spotted the downed body which was groaning in pain. It was his man.

Ouzo jerked up and tensed in an instant when his noticed his superior, much to his horror.

"G-Gin, look, I can explain—"

"Where's she?" Gin said coldly.

"Y-You mean Sherry?" Ouzo stuttered, "she got away, with some—"

Gin grabbed his collar in a blink of an eye and looked right through him with his burning orbs. Ouzo's heart twinge from such intense murderous aura and tried to contain himself.

"I just got here and look what I've got: a useless weakling like you failed to do a simple task," Gin's voice was now deadly scary and furious, "Was it really difficult to babysit a little girl like her, hm?"

"N-No, it's not like that. S-She was with someone else, a teenage boy around her age with glasses…" Ouzo was sweating hard under his strong grip, "They were under my control until some crazy woman saved them and nearly broke my jaw…"

"…"

Gin didn't reply anything to this. Instead, he penetrated deeper into his eyes and looked at him with unreadable expression.

"P-Please don't kill me…" the red-haired man pleaded in horror, "I'm telling you the truth, I swear—"

"So I see," Gin put down the man and let go of his grasp, leaving him breathing hardly and sighing in relief, "I figured the last one attacking you was that woman, am I correct?"

Ouzo only could only nodded in response; his frantic heartbeats hadn't adjusted yet.

"Judging from your situation, I'm sure that we just missed Sherry by few seconds and I believe that Vodka is now chasing _her_ and whoever her companion is," Gin turned around his shoes and examined the room. "As for you, go after that woman and bring her to me dead or alive. Now."

"R-Roger that, Gin, I won't disappoint you," Ouzo wasted no time dashing to the door and headed to the broken window and jumped outside. He inspected the ground to find any track and then ran fast to some direction which led to the woods. The man disappeared quickly under the gloomy night.

Gin continued examining the room.

The small office was nothing special, he decided. But soon his attention fixed to something—is that a dead body?—beside the table in one corner of the room. Damn. Ouzo really messed it up, didn't he?

Still in his composure, he calmly walked to the bookshelf and then abruptly threw the books and dropped them on the floor, ruined the table, messing the papers and completed his action with his final touch: set up the fire.

With that huge amount of flammable material, the wooden office was burned instantly.

The silver-haired man in black robe innocently walked off the building through the backdoor, passing the broken window and left the bar which was starting to glow in bright red.

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Shinichi halted instantly at the sight of high concentration of red light few blocks away behind them. It was definitely fire, most likely coming from the pub. So they made their moves already?

"Is that…?" Shiho was breathing hard from running. Her eyes widened in shock and something else.

"Fire. They burned it to destroy the evidence, I suppose," he confirmed and turned around to pull Shiho's hand with his, "come on, we gotta keep moving."

"Alright," she inhaled and followed his lead. They were now running down a path which separated bunch of abandoned buildings and the forest. So practically they're pretty close to the sea now, and that's why there couldn't find anybody in that neighborhood. Damn. Why they had to be so lonely in the Island of Festivals? And why those FBI agents settled for the uninhabited forest instead of crowded city square?

They kept on running down the path and never stepped inside the forest, much to Shiho's confusion. Shinichi, on the other hand, was still holding her hand and led on with an occasional glance over his shoulder.

Shiho couldn't help to ask the detective any longer.

"Kudo-kun, why are we still near the buildings? Didn't Jodie-san tell us to head to the forest and find the van?" she managed to say between her breaths.

"Because, Haibara," Shinichi was glancing again to somewhere behind their backs, "I think we're being followed."

She tensed upon hearing this, but she tried her best to hide it.

"What do you mea—"

"Shhh!"

The detective pulled Shiho to crouch under the shadow of nearby house. His finger pressed to her lips to keep silent. They both sat on their knees with heart beating so hard. Shiho had to manage her breath to prevent any unwanted sound. She looked frantically to Shinichi who was just as tensed as she was.

"I think we should get in the house," Shinichi whispered and let go of his finger. He then stood up quietly and examined the house or the building beside him. There was no source of light in there, except for distant moonlight which reflected through faded paint in the wall. It's made of bricks and used to be a white beautiful house, Shinichi thought, before it's abandoned and deserted at the desolated area of the island. He found a rather solid door and opened it carefully, giving her signal to go in first. She obeyed and found a spot on the corner of the room inside.

It wasn't as large as it looked from the outside. The room seemed to be a former kitchen or something. There was a rusty sink near the wall, a white wooden cabinet which mostly covered by dust, some door which led to the other rooms in the house, and a broken glass window that faced the dark forest.

After peeking the dark path for the last time, Shinichi closed the door and approached the gloomy-faced girl hugging her knees on the corner.

"Haibara, are you okay?" his voice was so gentle and hoarse. He's eyes carefully examined her with the faint illumination which broke in through the window.

"No, I—" she tried to speak but her words seemed to stuck on her throat. She slightly shifted and turned her head away from him, looking somewhere on the cracked wall. Her bangs covered her face, so it's hard to see her clearly, especially under this light. But he could sense that she wasn't quiet herself at that time. She was losing her composure and an inner turmoil of hers was threatening to break her mask.

"At least we're save now," he silently said as before, "we'll just wait until—"

"I'm sorry," she managed finally, "for all of this. For everything…"

"Haibara, it's…" the young detective couldn't help but sighing at the distressed girl, "we're gonna make it, okay? We'll be out of this island, go home to Beika, sneak into Hakase's front door, and wrap ourselves in warm blankets and sleep like there's no tomorrow."

The girl blinked and lifted her head to meet his eyes in an instant.

"W-Well, I didn't mean wrap ourselves like…_that,_" he corrected in panic, there was a hint of reddened face even in that brightness, "I meant— It would be— Uh—"

"Baka," she looked him back in annoyance out of habit.

"Ah, there you are," he smiled automatically in relief upon seeing such familiar expression. At least the tension had decreased a bit. But then, she was back to her muse and averted his gaze again. Silenced smeared through the dark empty room as he was also shifted uncomfortably in his floor. They could hear the cricket sang in harmony from outside, but their minds were too lost to listen to anything. The detective's eyes caught the strawberry blonde once again, trying to read and break through whatever things bothering her frail figure.

"But, still, Kudo-kun," she broke through the silence, "I should've known that they'll be on guard in this island. My mother was here; my sister and her FBI boyfriend were too. They won't miss a single opportunity to hunt me down until they had me captured or see me dead. I— I should have foreseen this."

Shinichi didn't retort.

"And yet, I insisted to go to this place and dragged you into this mess…"

There was an unpleasant pain on upper part of his abdomen. His eyes searched to find hers, but it failed. She seemed to be lost again and grabbed her own jacket to tighten her hold to her knees, as if trying to suppress something. Why? Why did she have to bear it alone? Why couldn't he take some of her burden and lift it for her? Why couldn't she trust _him_?

But then again, he was never being that kind of person whom she could trust anyway.

Sighing, he recalled meeting her for the first time when she hopelessly escaped the organization, denied her past, and running away from her fate. She had been living her life as a different person along with him for quite a long time now; it's true. There's even a unique bond between them which he couldn't describe or care to figure out; he admitted it. He realized that he never really know Haibara and understand her completely, or at least trying to, before he eventually pushed himself to sacrifice his ego to allow himself listening to her for the first time and brought them to this island.

Yes, it was his first time to ever allow himself to put his selfishness off and actually cared about her well-being, which he found that he was grateful for that.

He had changed because of her, and would gladly sacrifice more to lift her burden away and take part of every little adventure in her life…

…together.

So, to be honest, the sight of her distrust was painful to Kudo Shinichi. And this time, he'll make her see what she had made him become of.

"Listen," he said firmly, eyes fixed to the girl, "Don't ever blame yourself on this… And I never blamed you upon this kind of things because, you know what? It's never been your fault."

There's a hint of disagreement on her eyes, forcing her to turn her head slightly from him. But it didn't make the detective stop.

"Haibara, look at me," he reached for her chin with his fingers and brought her to face to see him again, "It's not your fault, you understand?"

She tried her best to return his tense gaze, which was threatening to break through her brain and rip off her cool composure. He was too tender, too sincere… And she's never supposed to deserve this from the person she foolishly loved and eventually harmed. Not from him.

Shinichi kept his hold in her chin when warm wetness started to form in her dull blue eyes, threatening to spill. He immediately wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close in his chest in faint shudder. The young scientist broke down under his tighten embrace and put off her self-defense at once. Right then, she wasn't afraid of being mocked or teased by him, as he always had done. She didn't care about acting stupid or not-being-quite-herself either. Instead, she felt really peaceful and so true around him, maybe for her first time.

…and she's quite liking it.

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Ouzo was running to no direction in between the trees. He had seen the fire from behind him few minutes ago, which he thought was coming from the bar. His pistol wasn't with him, much to his frustration, and he was pretty sure that he had lost whoever he was chasing now.

He halted briefly and supported his big body with an arm against nearby tree and breathed hard. Damn, years waiting in this small island really had made him soft, hadn't it? And he's putting his life at the edge of doom if he couldn't prove himself to be useful to the terrifying man called Gin, the one who sent him to this cursed island in the first place a couple of years ago.

He couldn't disappoint him now, or he'll soon be kil— wait, what's that white thing from afar? Was that a car?

Regaining his breath, Ouzo sneaked stealthily and approached the white car (or van, which soon he'll figure out) and pulled out a small shiny pocket knife from the bottom of his left shoe. When the red-haired man was only two meters away from the vehicle, he noticed that he'd never seen this car in the island before, and immediately be on his guard. His free hand slowly reached for the door handle while he was holding his breath.

Before he could pull the door open, however, a strange sound was rustling from behind his back. Ouzo instinctively spun around and raised his weapon to defend himself, just right in time before a strong punch destroy his skull.

"Well, well. I never expect to find you here," the stranger's voice was heavier than his last enemy's, meaning that they're not the same person and in different gender, apparently. Ouzo immediately took two steps away and blocked himself from anymore attack; his eyes glaring at the figure and trying to examine who he was. It was a man, indeed; he could tell from well-shaped body under the sleeveless shirt and short black hair. His firm right arm was pointing a gun at him. "Shouldn't you be dead already two years ago?"

The red-haired man froze upon hearing the voice more clearly now. He recognized it right away and instantly lowered his arm and smiled upon realizing that this figure wasn't really a stranger at all.

"There's always second chance, Brother," he said, "I'm sure that's what those FBI scum taught you all this time, eh?"

"Don't call me that," the younger man clenched his teeth in annoyance, or anger even. "I'm not your brother."

"Tsk, they taught you to disregard your family too now, right Toshiro?"

"I don't wear that name again."

"Heh, I figured. Maybe that's why I was never able to find you," the older man chuckled. "But I wonder, why are you still keeping that tattoo on your arm if you hate me so much, then?"

"This tattoo is to remind me—" he paused and examined the black head of a tiger his left arm, "—of how much misery I've been through. Revenge tastes better with it."

"Ah, revenge is sweet," Ouzo smirked, "so you're gonna end me now with a single bullet of yours now?"

"Heh, don't worry about it," Toshiro threw the pistol aside and shrugged, "I was planning to take you down with my own hands anyway."

"Fair enough," Ouzo did the same to his pocket knife and grinned. "So, shall we?"

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**TO BE CONTINUED**

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><p><strong>AN: **Sappy chapter, I know. But this had been my goal since I wrote this story: to show that Ai-chan could finally trust him (in a special way) and he trusts her too. She had been hiding her feeling too long now *sigh* which I thought was the main flaw in their relationship in canon plot.

Other than that, there's not much could be said except that this arc was taking longer than I thought. I hope you bear with it a bit longer because I assure you, this story had come nearer and neared to its end. That's the good news.

The bad news is, school had been so unmerciful with me in this first semester of the year. It took a great amount of my time than to do anything else like writing story or making art. So continuing this story won't be easy, but then I remembered my first purpose of writing this (it's in the first chapter's late A/N, btw) and determined to finish this at all cost.

Anyway, any comments for this chapter, people?

For the mean time, I wonder why Gosho-sensei hadn't written anything much about Black Org on the last, what, four or five volumes? I missed them so much :(


	10. The Last Ferry

**A/N: **It took me two weeks to get done with this chapter after I made sure that it's ready to be posted. Sorry for the ridiculous delay. And as a make up, here I present you the longest chapter ever. Enjoy!

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Detective Conan**

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**CHAPTER 10 – The Last Ferry**

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Two men were rumbled back and forth in the darkness of the forest. Fists and kicks flew away and warded off immediately before another, showing their almost equal strength and technique. The red-haired man focused heavily on fast and immediate counterattack. The younger one, however, seemed to be calmer and focused on strong defenses. It was until one of them stumbled and crashed against the white van on his knees when they both stopped.

"What happened to you? You've gone soft," the man in black sleeveless shirt touched his bruised right cheek and stood up in front of the downed man. At that point, he's pretty sure that the winner was obvious.

"Shut up!" Ouzo snarled; his temple was cut and bleeding. "You can't beat me, Toshiro! Not like this!"

The older man reached for something on the ground in a blink of an eye and pointed the previously discarded pistol to the unprepared agent. Tora's eyes went wide for a split second while his mind trying to register the situation, but the quick finger of his older brother made him almost impossible to decide an action.

Before he knew it, the explosion had broken through the peaceful night and echoed amongst the trees.

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Vodka was breathing slowly to listen behind the sound of dancing crickets and winds. The path he's been traversing was still as silent as ever, but his instinct told him that he was after _her_, the traitor of the organization, and her _friend_, as Gin told him earlier through the earphone. He had tracked them from where they left and he was sure that he's heading to the right course. Excitement flew through his body because he was sensing that they were close. Very close.

As he wandered around in cautious alert, he finally fixed his gaze to the half-broken glass window that belonged to the dull white house at the edge of the forest. _There!_

The man in black immediately located the door and broke inside. It was a dumped house and he was at the kitchen. On the corner of the room, there he found…

…nothing but dusty floor with fresh track on it.

Despite of his disappointment, he pressed the call button of his phone.

"Aniki— I found new track on one of the houses near the forest— Yes, it's affirmative. They've been here— Wait, what? Are you sure?— Okay then, I'll be heading there right away."

Sighing, he stepped out the empty house and kicked the door open. Then he started to walk into the forest and gone.

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An echoed bang could be heard in between the trees. Two figures stopped at once; their connected hands tensed in a second.

"Did you hear that?" the detective spoke.

"Yes, it's coming from there, apparently," she pointed to the deeper part of the forest, "do you think it's _them_?"

"Possibly. The van is supposed to be there too…" he trailed off, "Damn, they've gotten way ahead of us…"

The girl backed away slightly and paralyzed. The van was their only possible destination after the bar was burned and it was only few minutes after they had moved away from the abandoned house to go to the forest, as Jodie-sensei instructed, and now they've been outdistanced? Not to mention that every time they headed to some place, there always be somebody who's chasing them. Was there no more hope left?

"What should we do now, Kudo-kun? Should we go back to the festival instead of being here?"

"I was thinking the same thing too, but we don't know the exact number of _them_ and their locations. If they managed to figure out the van, then they should have anticipated the possibility and shut down our access to go back," he analyzed thoughtfully, his free hand massaged his chin, "there has to be some way else…"

_"True. There is another way…"_ came a ghostly voice out of nowhere, making Shinichi and Shiho tensed and jolted in a second. It was scary considering that they're alone in the forest… scary enough to send shiver down their spines. There was somebody else with them! Who is it?

A dark silhouette came into view when both teenagers turned and located the voice from their backs. It was a tall man with black jacket, hands clutching in the pockets, standing casually against some tree. His aura was unidentifiable under the gloomy darkness, but the atmosphere seemed to get heavier than it already was. Maybe it's just too hard to distinguish him with the dark, or maybe because certain scientist and detective were turned pale significantly before his presence. Well, especially the detective.

Because there, few meters in front of them, was standing a man with black knitted hat.

Shinichi gulped down in an instant. His eyes clumsily traced certain strawberry blonde girl and peeked for any sign of—

"You… Moroboshi Dai…" she recalled the man's name and held up the sudden urge to burst out everything she felt. Conan had told her his story; about Akai, about _Rye_. And by combination of that story and some part of her crystallized memory, she knew it at once when she caught a glimpse of his figure: she recognized him.

Shinichi let go of Shiho's hand and checked her more intently, wanting to tell her jokes or anything regarding this unexpected encounter. He was taken aback, however, after finding that she was practically glaring at their guest.

And Akai was staring back at her.

Shinichi felt as if he's in the middle of upcoming gunfight or something. He felt the need to break in.

"Haibara…" he called her name in hope that he would catch her attention and drop her killing aura.

But the girl didn't move her sight from Akai. Shinichi gulped down and unable to say anything at all. He faced the FBI agent in pleaded eyes, demanding him to stop whatever he was doing and help him sort things out.

"So I see…" there came a hoarse, almost whisper-like voice, "I guess you've figured it out…"

Akai shot Shinichi a stern glance and exhaled under his cloak. The high school boy shivered as a cold wind blew in between them which made their flesh creep. If there was a chance to say apology and explanation, he would make it right away for sure. But he'll shut his mouth this time. It wasn't his place to interfere this private matter between Shiho and the FBI agent anymore. But then again, even though he would gladly step aside and let them had the conversation, they're all in a tight schedule right now! The men in black were there and chasing them!

"I'm here after the boy from detective agency met me and asked about this place, which I instantly sensed that something would happen. And I was right," Akai said. "I never imagined that it would be this terrible, though. I never expect that _they_ still have their scout in this island all this time…"

Neither Shinichi nor Shiho retorted to this. So that's why Akai was there, which Shinichi couldn't decide if it's a bad time or a blessing in disguise from God.

"Listen, Shiho. I understand that you must be really mad at me about everything, about your sister..." Akai couldn't meet her gaze anymore and said in firm but low voice. The fact that he just called her by her first name so casually and the mention of 'her sister' made Shiho tensed a little bit. "…And I really, really want to spend much more time with you to talk things up…"

Shinichi carefully looked at Shiho to see her respond. But there wasn't any.

"…But our time is limited. _They _could find you two in any seconds if you don't get away from this Island this instance, when you still have the chance. Right now, your safety is your top priority," Akai returned back to her eyes which were less intense than before.

"He's right, Haibara. We need to move," the detective found his voice back and tried his luck. Shiho glared at him in an instant, but the sound of a faint bang echoed in between the trees once again. It was coming from the same direction from the previous explosion, where the van was most likely located. However, the sound was clearer and louder than before. Maybe it was because they're standing in silence for once and really listened. Or maybe the fight had dragged a little closer to them, which was definitely not a good news.

"They're getting close," Akai said firmly. "I suggest you take turn from here and head to the harbor instead. If you move quickly, you'll manage to board the last ferry which will take leave in few minutes."

"Yes, I figured," the detective agreed, glancing his wristwatch to check the time and turned to face the still silent Shiho. She wasn't really glaring at the man now, though. Instead, she looked like she was…tensing? From what?

"I… I sensed _them_ coming…" the strawberry blonde stepped away and clutching behind Shinichi's arm. The teenager boy examined her paled expression and observed the direction from which she was hiding. There, in the dark, he could see the shadow of a big guy with trilby hat.

It was Vodka.

Akai's guard was immediately up and quickly turned to face the approaching figure. His hand pulled up some black material behind his jacket to cover half of his face to hide his identity.

"Go now." Akai's voice was muffled behind his mask. It was an order.

"Okay. Come on, Haibara!" Shinichi grabbed her wrist and pulled her to attempt their escape once again. The girl obeyed and started to run away with him, taking a turn as Akai suggested. The trees rumbled slightly by the wind as they vanished from the sight of certain organization member, which was now distracted by the presence of another man in front of him. Vodka was displeased upon this encounter, especially when he was so close with his target now. His armed hand pointed forward to get rid of this unwanted obstacle for good.

But the FBI agent was too fast and rushed forward before the man was even able to pull the trigger.

"What the—"

The big guy fell hard with a loud thud and a growl; his pistol was slipped from his hand and lied somewhere on the ground. Akai jumped back up and took a step away to give them safe distance. His eyes carefully fixed to Vodka until the downed figure jerked up and swung a good punch to payback. This rush attack was easily dodged by the taller man, so Vodka was disoriented for a split second. Akai used this chance to score an uppercut that nicely hit his opponent's jaw.

"Aargh, goddammit!" Vodka cried out in pain, finding himself on his knees once again. His hand touched his painful chin to check for any sign of broken bone while his eyes fixing to the standing figure in front of him. Akai was breathing hard in his silent defense position, still examining the big guy and searched for any possible counter-attack moves. When Vodka was finally calmed down, he took the time to observe this stranger's face, but failed when he realized that he was wearing a mask. Vodka then took a notice of his pose, a black knitted hat he was wearing, and his appearance.

Vodka held his breath in disbelief, this stranger was too familiar.

Slowly, the shorter guy lifted himself up and grabbed something from the ground and hid a handful of dry soil behind his back. He then suddenly charged forward with his available fist, forcing the FBI agent to block the punch aside and lifted his knee to defend, but Vodka was cunning. He threw a good amount of dirt to Akai's face before he got the chance to score another hit. The taller guy shut his eyes close just in time though, so the soil wasn't be able to injure his vision. This short second was an advantage to Vodka, giving him time to flow a strong jab to Akai's abdomen. The man couldn't get away in time and got hit pretty badly in his stomach. When he bent over in reflex to endure the pain, Vodka hit him down with his elbow, making the FBI agent fell on the ground in an instant.

Vodka smirked in his success before Akai grabbed his ankle out of nowhere and forcefully pulled the big guy until he's also fell on his back, leaving a pretty hurt skull and cracked shoulder. Damn, this guy was tough. This fight couldn't go on forever, Vodka decided, or they will lose their target which had already gone a while ago. He had to contact Gin.

He intended to get his cellphone while he still could, but Akai was already up and flew his leg toward him. The kick successfully hit Vodka's arm, preventing his reach to his pocket and making him cursed audibly in his frantic breath. The raging Vodka then swiftly slid his legs to Akai's ground, effectively hitting him and forced him to fell on his back due to lack of balance support. Vodka quickly pressed his body against the downed man and locked his arm with his elbow and another arm under his chest. Akai was unable to move and could only glare at his enemy.

The guy on the top finally reached his cellphone and pressed few buttons. He shot Akai a playful smirk when a voice from his earphone responded.

"Aniki, I'm sorry for the late report. But there is a cockroach blocking my way—" he felt Akai was moving slightly but his arm moved faster to lock him again, "—but I could tell that they intend to reach the harbor, which I believe it's the way you've been heading? I saw them rushing to that direction—"

Gin hung up and Vodka exhaled. He stared at his opponent's pierce eyes behind his ever-present sunglasses and smiled in victory.

"—And now, I shall finish you first," he chuckled and Akai struggled once again, only to be failed. "But before that, I'd like to take off that damn thing so I can see your face properly as I kill you…"

Chuckling, Vodka carefully reached for Akai's mask and his smile grew even wilder.

Akai waited under his breath for a perfect time to strike.

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"H-have we—lost them already?" the strawberry blonde tried to catch her breath, hand still holding with his in their run.

"Yeah, just—a little bit more," he encouraged her and noticed a gleaming light from the distance, "Look! There it is!"

Shiho looked at the harbor too, which was still so far in her view. There, they could see the last ferry preparing to leave. But other than that, there's not much people in the harbor and the neighborhood, because it's very unlikely people would want to miss Shizuma's signature show, so the harbor wasn't as crowded as they first arrived.

"Do you think— we could make it—?"

"Don't know yet," Shinichi breathed and glanced at his watch, which was hard to see because he was running, "let's just— let's just keep going, okay?"

"Y-yeah," she obeyed and tried to keep up with him. She couldn't give up now, could she? They're so close to their destination after all. They had already got off the forest and then they hit a solid ground that led to the harbor. They only had to pass through this last block of houses and they'd make it. Shinichi glanced at the barren street, amazed at how empty the neighborhood was. But it wasn't the perfect time to stroll, he had to stay focused. He tightened his hold to Shiho's hand and fixed his gaze to the road. It's getting closer. They're getting closer to the—

"Shit…"

Shinichi stopped his run abruptly, followed by a shocked Shiho beside him. She was panting so heavily that she almost couldn't voice up her protest.

_Oh, God. What now? _She groaned inwardly in frustration. _What stopped us this time?_

She looked up her head to see the direction where Shinichi's been staring. In terror, she noted, from his hardened expression and wide opened eyes. But as much as she wondered why, the darkness couldn't really help her see clearly in this deserted neighborhood. The lightning wasn't that good anyway, and she was pretty sure that there was nothing—or nobody—was blocking their way. So why did Shinichi stop?

As she was about to ask for the countless times that night about what's going on, she noticed a dark figure from slightly afar, stepped from one of the houses at ease. The shadow was slowly emerging from the dark and begun to form in front of them. And at once, Shiho sensed that stinging fear stabbed somewhere in her heart. It was like an instant radar or something which she always felt when one of _them_ was around. It usually went like a cold and sharp wind smeared into your chest, leaving an anxious string of sensation for a brief moment. But this time, the radar was different. It didn't last as much as the previous one did. Rather, it was dropped in your heart out of nowhere in one breath and exploded; threatening to cut off your heart out if you're unprepared and unfamiliar with this thing.

It happened all the time when she sensed Gin.

Shiho was petrified, but Shinichi knew better that they had to move now.

"Run!" he shouted to her, as if intending to wake her from her numbness. The strawberry blonde snapped back and for a second, she couldn't register as to what she should do. The figure was approaching. _He_ was coming to them now. And he was smiling wide with his evil eyes at her, whispering coldly.

_Long time no see…_ He had said in between his vicious grin. _Sherry…_

"Shit!" the detective spat out and held her hand on his own once again, then turned around to begin again the dash to save their life. She obliged, still dazed in reality of meeting her greatest fear just when they're only few steps away from their last hope, which was now already gone. The ferry was starting to cruise back to the main land at that very second they turned away from the harbor, and she was hundred percent sure this time they had no escape.

But that optimism in that detective's face hadn't gone yet. Though he's also tired as much as she was, there was always a spark of assurance that lied behind those firm eyes. The spark which always gave power to believe that there was still a way to get through this, and that they could still make it. Together, they'll make it! And if he still trusted her in this, she would trust him too in return.

"What now, Tantei-kun? The last ferry's gone," she calmed her voice and cleared her mind. She had to help him in this if she really wanted to survive.

Shinichi didn't answer right away and glanced to the harbor once again. True, the last ferry's cruising smoothly on the dark green water and there's no way that they'd reach it now. So he had to think of the other options they had before the killer psychopath behind them catching up.

And damn right, he was catching up.

"Where are you going, Sherry?" they heard Gin shouted in his hoarse voice behind their backs, who apparently was on the run too to go after them.

Shiho's face darkened and slightly jolted. She wanted to look back to see how close Gin was, but Shinichi's firm grasp of her hand prevented her by pulling her a little to get her attention.

"Don't look back!" he commanded, "just keep going!"

"Okay," she managed and stay focused with the little strength she had. Shinichi kicked a bunch of bushes in his way when, once again, they entered the dark forest near the sea. So now, there's not much options remained and they broke down in two ways. They could either going back to where they came from (which was definitely a suicide) or going deeper to traverse the unknown part of the forest ahead and tried their luck. Well, that's the normal options, at least. The crazy option was, and thank God there was still one crazy option left, was running through one of the twin peninsula cliff near the sea where would end up in a dead end cliff, so they could jump off the land and…

_Wait. That's it!_

"Kudo-kun, are we on the right track?" Shiho snapped him back from his imagination which still lingered in his smirking face, the one you'll find when the detective was dawned upon a realization of solving some cases or just wanted to look cool. "We're heading to the sea—"

"I know, I have some plan," he announced, leaving Shiho's face in wonder. "Hear me out."

Gin was speeding up furiously now; he was only twenty meters away or so from the two teenagers. Slowly, a demon-like grin was forming to his face, knowing that his prey was cornered at last. This time, there was no way she could escape. Even if there's a possibility that she'll jump off to the sea with her friend, he'd still going to enjoy shooting them from the top while they're struggling to swim. And he was so tempted to the idea that he pulled out his gun from his pocket and stated to aim to the running figure in front of him. It's the perfect time to start the fun, wasn't it?

"What? Are you out of your mind?" Shiho snapped. Shinichi had told her the plan, and they were only few seconds away from attempting it.

"Don't worry. I've seen the cliff– when we got here– And I'm sure, it's– within our range," he explained in short breath and there's no hint of doubt in his eyes.

There was a sudden muffled explosion hitting the tree just beside the detective; the bullet successfully crush the branch and it fell in rustling voice, making the two almost jump in shock.

"Damn!" Shinichi gritted his teeth. "He starts shooting!"

"There's no way you could get away from me this time, Sherry!" Gin's voice added the horror from behind. For a moment Shiho felt the stinging pain again in her heart and she winced.

"Haibara, don't listen to him. We can do this," Shinichi said, applying a little pressure to her hand and squeezed it. "Trust me?"

Shiho blinked at those blue confident orbs before nodded.

"Yeah, I trust you."

"Good. Then I'll start," he said and dug something in his pocket. It's the tiny speaker which he usually planted behind the sleeping Kogorou's collar, so his voice would transmit from his bow tie to assist the fake detective. Then, he tossed the little thing somewhere in the area while keep on running.

"What was that?"

"We need something to distract him a little."

"But we're so close, it would be useless to distract him now," Shiho pointed out. The detective only smirked while putting off his new glasses with his free hand.

"Exactly," he grinned.

With one quick swing, he threw the glasses behind him after clicking some button in the frame. Shiho's heartbeat grew faster; her eyes clenched shut in anticipation. Gin saw this movement. For a brief second, the grin in his face was gone and replaced with uncertainty. He slowed down his steps by instinct just before the glasses started to glow.

And it exploded.

The sudden loud sound and the wave were enough to throw anyone nearby away, but Shinichi did his best to hold them in balance and keep on moving. In few seconds, they were at the end of the cliff and finally had to make the final attempt.

"Now!" he commanded, and they both kicked their toes to jump from the cliff—

—to land on the roof of the last ferry when it's passing by the peninsula before completely leaving the island, just as Shinichi had planned.

The maneuver was smooth during, but painful at the end. They both crashed hard on their backs with cracking bones and limb. Shinichi hit the deck first, then Shiho was landed on his right. Once he's awareness was back, he extended an arm to check on the girl, his palms touching her face and inspected for any injuries. Fortunately, there was none.

And then, for the first time in their long run, they're sure that they had finally made it.

Together.

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><p>Gin's knocked down hard and his body surrendered after tossed twenty feet off the ground. He fell on his back when the fire started burning the trees and bushes in front of him, but it didn't took long for him to gain consciousness. His legs stood up almost abruptly, his eyes flashed furious glare, and his armed hand was sweating under his tight hold of the gun. Though he physically seemed to recover pretty fast from the shock, his mind was completely blown by the fact that he had just lost his particular prey right under his nose. Once again.<p>

But he smirked. He never expected all of this, true. But he wouldn't expect himself to give up so easily, right? They must've been still nearby, and he still could try to pursue them, 'till death, if necessary. The silver-haired man then gained his composure and was about to rush through the fire when he heard faint yelling from behind his back.

"Gather around, people! I saw the bad guy running there! He just fired up a bomb or something! Call the main land police right away!"

Oh, bummer. That must be the villagers, Gin thought. It looked like he had to deal with them first. But how? Killing the approaching mob one by one in the spot? He'd be more than happy to do it for sure, if the place and situation were proper and suitable to do so. But he was on stranger's land right now, with no back up and no reinforcement whatsoever from his fellow organization members. This trip was never been planned anyway. It came up from a random call from his scout, who suddenly reported that his long lost enemy was found again. So he did what he should do: to rush immediately to this island without notify one single person from the org, because the chain of command wouldn't allow him to get there just like that (except if he were Vermouth, who would always be forgiven even if she dishonored the rules).

Gin lowered his body and hid it behind a tree, eyes cautiously inspecting the darkness where the voice came from. He had to handle it with cool head and regain the control, before things get worse and he ended up get caught if he's careless. He wouldn't want that to happen, would he?

Silently and patiently, with the background sound of cracking fire behind him, he waited for the villager to come.

"There! I see the fire! Come here, people, quick!"

He pulled the hammer of his pistol and narrowed his eyes for better outlook. But he hadn't caught anybody—or anything— in view.

"Don't you run away! We'll hand you to the police!"

He sensed something in that voice. Something strange.

"We'll find you!"

His wide pupils soon normalized when he realized something; something that tickled the center of his brain and almost stopped his frantic heartbeat.

It was a decoy.

If he would say it loud, Gin was cursing his frustration out of his breath. With one swift move, he turned around to rush to the fire without further hesitation, and desperately looked for the end of the cliff. The fake voice still could be heard somewhere, but he didn't care. He needed to find her. He _had_ to find her. But when he arrived at the end of the path, Gin found nothing but disappearing ferry cruised through the dark water, clearly out of his reach.

"Shit."

He had lost her again.

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"Let's go, people! We're close!" Shinichi played his voice over Conan's voice-changing bow tie with Shiho on his side. They were still on their previous position: he's on his back on the deck and she was just lying there beside him. "Be careful! He got a gun— _Crack—_ Oh, crap."

"Wait, what was that?" she tensed up for a second.

"I think he'd found the speaker," he tried his best to suppress a laughter, "and crushed it hard."

"That must've pissed him off," Shiho commented on a light giggle, suddenly found the situation very amusing. "And I honestly never expect that Hakase's new glasses could actually explode."

"Tell me about it. I thought he was making up the Mission Impossible part," he exhaled and relaxed his over-tensed shoulders and limbs. His chest fell up and down in regular breathing after for some time, and Shiho's eyes unintentionally followed them. The detective caught her gaze and bent to search her eyes which, in return, looked up and saw his. This sight of matching blue pair of orbs brought sparkles inside his heart, then it smeared through his veins and through his pores, reminding him of the warmth of the sunshine. He instantly smiled at that feeling and made no effort to hide his slight blush that begun to form at the corner of his cheeks, because there was no harm to let certain girl know that he was happy about themselves.

"We've made it," he grinned, eyes never broke with hers.

"Yeah," she let out a smile and didn't move either, "we've made it."

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Ouzo was lying on the forest ground with uneven breathing, his jacket was tossed somewhere and there were numerous bruises in his body. A cold sweat dropped from his temple due to the unbearable pain on his legs which smearing from his bones, making him unable to use them. He stared flat at the sky beyond the trees as if in search for something to distract the pain, but it didn't seem to work, so he closed his eyes shut. There, instead of finding some little piece, the flash of memory took over.

"_What happened to you? You've gone soft._"

He recalled a younger man, once he knew as a little brother, had knocked him down.

"_Shut up! You can't beat me, Toshiro! Not like this!_"

He remembered had snapped back at him and grabbed a nearby pistol, which he had spotted at some time during their fight. And he remembered shooting the man in front of him, only to be dodged at the last second so that it could only cut his cheek. Then Tora had moved fast to kick him hard in the arm, but Ouzo had gained his strength back and moved his leg to slide his opponent from behind until he crashed on him. He remembered swinging his arm to take the chance to blow a score, but the other man already wrestled him to fight the control over the weapon. He had responded quickly by defending his possession before something from his legs cracked audibly and he had let out painful groan.

He remembered couldn't move lower part of his body when the younger man stood up once again, pointing the weapon to his head.

"_This ends now,_" his panting voice was still fresh in his mind, and he had been almost sure that he was about to shoot when he pulled the trigger. Ouzo had shut his eyes at that moment, but the pain of bullet shot he had anticipated never came because the explosion seemed to head somewhere else. Hesitantly, his eyes had opened to see that Tora was pointing the gun to his back and the bullet had been shot through some space, or bushes, behind him.

"_Why didn't you finish me? It's what you always wanted, isn't it?_"

The man who had spared his life looked quiet for a moment before lifting his head to meet his gaze again.

"_I'm still unable forget about mother and father, about my little sister, and about everything you had done to them. I even can still hear their screaming for help in my dream when you brutally slew them in front of my eyes…_" his voice had trembled slightly and he regained his composure, "_but I'm not you. And I will never become one of your kind. I'm not a murderer._"

The downed man had not broken his gaze to his brother and still challenged him, challenged his luck.

"_So now you're going to leave me here to die?_"

"_Close enough._" He had seen him smirked in the dark. "_I'll let somebody else do it for me._"

He then had kept his gun aside, and checked something on the van for a brief moment before leaving it just like that in the forest with the red-haired man and his misery. Ouzo's nape shivered upon hearing his brother's last words about somebody else killing him, which he knew very well who, why and when. And suddenly he lost the interest to everything else in the world and something strange occurred in his head, because his mind couldn't work properly when he's been sentenced to death in the count of minutes.

The time seemed to flow heavier and faster at the same time. He was so overwhelmed by a struggle in his mind that he didn't hear somebody was coming. When his eyes flickered open, he was in that position again where someone aimed to his head with a lot of fury on his eyes. Gin's eyes.

"You had failed," Gin's hoarse voice was mixed with anger and pretty much everything else. Ouzo could only return the glare with nonchalant look while maintaining his calm.

"I see you had, too," he said, noticing that his superior had come back empty-handed. The silver-haired man growled at this respond but didn't take the bait.

"Look, I can finish you off smoothly, or painfully. It's your choice and it seemed that it's been decided," he bent and supported himself with his toes to inch closer; gun's still pointing at his man. "But I need you to be useful for the last time."

The red-haired man only inspected Gin, which was throwing his attention to the empty white van near them before turning back to him again.

"Who's behind this?" Gin demanded with threatening voice. Ouzo knew well what he meant, but he shook his head.

"I don't know. Didn't recognize any or their faces," he lied.

"Any useful information you can offer me then?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Hmm," Gin stood up immediately and decided that it's going to be a waste of time questioning his useless subordinate. "You're so eager to die already. Fine."

Ouzo tensed at his movement; he saw his death more clearly now. He gulped down and exhaled to prepare himself, but he was surprised when Gin kept his gun under his cloak and took out something else from there. His eyes narrowed and he could see a red-white capsule on his hand. He had never seen it before, although he had heard that the org had some weird style of killing people lately by using some pills. But what was it, exactly? Was it a poison? Or was it something worse?

When Gin lowered his body to feed him the pill, he snapped. "What is that?"

"It's your ticket to hell," Gin responded nonchalantly, "just shut up and drink."

"What if I don't want to?" he was sweating now, hard. He'd rather die by a bullet than with some strange pill of God knows what. He struggled when Gin locked his both hands by a pressure from his legs and one arm, while the other was holding the capsule and was only two inches away from his mouth.

"I'll make you."

And with that, he pushed the pill inside and locked Ouzo's jaw as tight as he could, making sure he had no chance to spit it out, and watching him suffer before he had gone completely.

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The ferry moved gently, almost soundlessly, and they're still there: gazing at the unusually bright stars above them. They just lied side-by-side at the previous spot and enjoyed the view as the ferry seemed to take its time and moved so slowly that they forgot they're cruising sometimes. None of them said a word to ruin this little peacefulness after long shenanigans they've been through. They hear nothing but the sound of water beneath the ship and their even breathing. Shinichi could swear that he'd willing to live forever there, just like that, where they could be themselves and feel save at the same time.

Shinichi was the first to break the silence when he decided that it's the most perfect time to start.

"Hey," he had said without turning his gaze to her, then he just stopped there as if checking if she's still awake or something.

"Mm," she murmured in respond without looking up to him also.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"'_Pretty much?_' You don't sound so sure," he commented and turned his head to examine her at last, only he could manage to look at delicate strands of strawberry blonde.

"After all that happened tonight, I don't know…" she kept her gaze up above, "I mean, I'm glad that we both survived the Island. I do. None of us were harmed. _You_ were not harmed. And I'm truly grateful for that."

Shinichi kept silent and waited without complain, encouraging her to continue.

"But somebody had died tonight. Andrew-san, I mean. And I keep on wondering…" she trailed off, "maybe if I never stepped on his bar, he would've still alive."

The detective was dead silent at that moment, he hated every time she came to that conclusion. He knew by experience that she had always felt like that whenever people died or hurt because of _them_, especially when it's involving her being the traitor of the org. But he couldn't just judge her right away, so he had to think of something else to fix that.

"Or maybe…" the detective said after a brief pause and smiled, "If _I_ never step on this island, none of this would've happened."

"What do you mean?" she lifted her head and looked at him.

"You know of my curse, right?" he started to look away again, but she just stared still at him in confusion. "Whenever I go to some place, there seemed to be random people dying…"

She seriously almost burst out of laughter upon this innocent confession of detective which apparently had no problem of the idea that he attracted death of other 'random people', like he said.

"Oh, just admit that you're enjoying it," she chuckled under her breath and relaxed a bit, "somewhere in that brain of yours, you actually _expect_ that something would happen. Not to mention that you'll always solve them at the end anyway."

"Well, I couldn't help it: people die anytime. But the least that I could do was to do my best to find the culprit by bringing everything I've got. That's the best I could do at the present time to fight for the future, because however I wanted it too, nobody could alter the past."

This time, it was Shiho who kept silent and looked away back to the stars, but her mind wasn't focusing on those bright dots in the sky anymore. The detective only smiled at the figure beside him and hoped that it would do her some good, or at least, be a good start.

So he returned to gaze to the other silent company up there which could only blink at him playfully which suddenly turned to be brighter than usual from one side of the horizon, followed with a faint cracking sound from the direction of the island behind the ship. He blinked at the sight before realizing that the main show was on. The girl beside him was already half the way from getting up and she clung at the metal bars on the deck to get better view of the fireworks. He quickly stood up also and found one fantastic scenery of red, blue, and pretty much every color in chains above the island, making the sky glow in illuminating hue which was perfect in the dark black midnight.

The fireworks was beautiful.

He slowly followed Shiho clinging to the metal bars and simply enjoyed the wonderful attraction. His eyes unknowingly threw a glance at the strawberry blonde that seemed to be mesmerized at the moment. Well, at least she did enjoy something from their journey, right?

"I'm sorry," he said to her when silvery wheels of flames started to glow in the sky. The girl looked genuinely taken aback before turning her head at him, searching his eyes.

"For what?"

"I'm sorry that you couldn't get your present."

The girl blinked for a moment before exhaling and curved her lips.

"It's okay, I guess. We didn't expect that the present was already long gone before we know it," she decided when a series of orange trail of fire danced in between the still silver sky, "anyway, I think I already found my present."

"What is it?" he leaned on his elbow to turn the attention fully at her.

"For me being here, where Okaa-san and Onee-chan had been, to feel like I've traversed back in time to stand in their shoes and experience their journey… For me being here and witnessing the most beautiful sky ever. And most of all, for you being here and helping me get through all this, and everything else. For me, that's enough for a present," she hid her blush in her cheeks before mustering up her courage to look him at the eye. "So thank you, Kudo-kun, for being here with me."

The detective felt a stir on his stomach at the sight of colorful mix of every light on her face, or at how delicate her lips slipped the words, or maybe it's at how sweet her voice was, he didn't know. All he knew that there was some urge to hold that smooth hair in his hand and held her closer so that she knew how thankful he was too for knowing that they could still together despite all of the things. So he let his fingers run through the tip of her hair, waited a bit longer to see if she's okay with it, before cupping her burning cheek and brought himself closer.

"No, _I_ thank you," he breathed to her mouth before shut himself to claim her expectant lips. He heard a small gasp escaped her before he felt she was leaning on his touch that gently rested at her neck. The stirring feeling had turned to be a nice kind of turmoil inside in his guts when a fog suddenly blocked his senses for a moment. The feeling of smooth skin under his palm, the soft bites of her teeth, and a foreign taste of her mouth: It was overwhelming. He decided that he needed more of her so badly, but his lungs betrayed him. It was not long before they both parted for air and came back to reality.

When they clearly saw each other again, he couldn't make up any words to explain about what had just happened. But she eventually smirked—the pleasant kind of smirk— before turning her head away and broke the eye contact.

"Kudo-kun, I think someone's yelling at us."

"Huh?"

"Down there. Don't you hear anything?"

Shinichi followed her line of sight to somewhere way below the deck and behind the ferry. There, he noticed a motorboat was floating beside the giant ferry with a person, or a woman, driving it. Wait, since when he heard any sign of motorboat before?

"Hey, you hear me now, Cool Kid?" she yelled from the driver seat while waving her hand to get their attention, "I don't mean to interrupt, but I think it's time to go. Grab that rope and get down here, will you?"

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**TO BE CONTINUED**

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><p><strong>AN: **Aaah, I think some kind of big burden had been lifted from my shoulders by finishing this chapter and the next one should be easier, so make sure you don't miss it, guys! There's gonna be a lot to explain O_O

And don't forget to poke that Review link and say something. You know you want to ^^


	11. Little Conspiracy

**A/N: **This chapter is a resolution, explanation, closure, whatever, to the chaos in Shizuma Island. Or at least that's what I'm trying to do. Hope it'd clear up the haze and confusion from the previous chapters. Enjoy!

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Detective Conan**

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**CHAPTER 11 – Little Conspiracy**

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"Goddammit, Vodka. Pick it up."

Gin was standing up in front of white van in the forest of Shizuma Island. Few feet away beside his spot, there lied a man with red-hair and frozen limbs. Gin had been staring at the dead body for a few minutes while trying to reach his partner in God knows where, but he kept his composure. He furiously redialed some numbers in his cell phone when nobody on the other line picked up and cursed when he noticed at the time. It's past midnight already after some fireworks show few minutes ago, and it's definitely not safe for him to keep wandering off in this place. Sooner or later, people in the city should aware that there's some crime going on in their island considering the fact that he just set a bar in fire and some 'bomb' had exploded near the beach. If he didn't make a move now, he'd be screwed.

He was about to give up when a figure was approaching him in clumsy steps. It's Vodka and he's alive, but he was not in a good shape.

"Sorry, Aniki. My phone's broken, but I detected your location with my tracking device and headed here as soon as I could," he said when he's near and his face was visible. "I was attacked with this guy and lost my consciousness. And, I think… I broke my nose."

The silver-haired man was deep in thought while listening to Vodka's explanation. So he too was attacked by yet another unknown person which was apparently generous enough to let him alive and keep his devices work. He made a mental note to check for any locator or bug in his body before they returned, but first, there's something else more important to do.

"We have to clean this mess up," Gin ordered and turned around to gesture some body on the ground, and Vodka winced.

"Is that Ouzo? Is he dead?" said Vodka while inspecting the dead man's body with his eyes behind his glasses.

"Yes. I got him swallow _it_."

"Why?"

"He was unworthy," Gin gritted his teeth and Vodka shut himself from any other question because if Gin started to kill their own guys, it always meant that things didn't work out well. Actually, he had kind of figured that out already and maybe it's best not to talk about what happened until Gin mentioned it later. Vodka then threw his attention to the white van near them and straightened up.

"What now?" he fixed his sunglasses and tugged his hands to his pocket, trying to think of their best options.

"Like I said, we have to clean this mess up," Gin repeated with firm tone, "and then, we leave."

Vodka contained himself and obeyed. "Okay."

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The rest of the night passed slowly than Shinichi had imagined. He remembered being in Jodie-sensei's motorboat with Shiho where mostly he acted as substitute driver and listened as the FBI agent being scolded by her so-called 'Boss' from the Bureau over the phone in the entire journey to the main island. The detective could swear that he had never seen her being humiliated like that, but when he overheard the conversation, he kind of understand the circumstances.

He concluded that Jodie-sensei had gone to Shizuma Island without permission, or notification at least, and she had disappeared for a good interval of time. Unfortunately, there was another matter going on in the office in that short interval: something about 'the airport' and 'package', as he had heard. It happened that they had needed her assistance, which of course was unavailable because she had disabled all tracking device whatsoever and made her and her partner invisible at that time.

So once she ended the call, her face was all red and worn-out. Shinichi was unsure whether to confront her or just leave her alone until she recover or something.

"That was my boss," she took a seat on the rear side of the boat, slumping helplessly. "Gosh, I was so dead."

"Will you get any trouble? Should we—" he gestured in between him and Shiho on the seat beside him, "—explain it to your boss instead?"

"No, Cool Kid, I think I can handle it myself. My boss only asked for a detailed report about tonight and he wanted it on his desk first thing in the morning," she sighed but smiled. "Thanks, though."

Shinichi didn't inquire anything else regarding to her boss anymore and returned his attention to the water. They had to take a longer route as prevention of unwanted ambush so the trip was taking longer than usual. He glanced at the seat beside him and found Shiho was already sleeping. Rather cutely, he noted. Suddenly a smile formed in his face almost automatically when the memory of the fireworks flashed in his mind. The blushing detective then decided to turn his sight off to somewhere else before his cheeks burning at random thought that begun to invade his senses. He had to think of something else.

"Sensei, would you tell me again why you're here?" he started after a silence; Jodie only lifted her head in attention, but she didn't respond right away. "I mean, you didn't just come here for a vacation, right? Were you following me by any chance?"

"If you mean by following is tagging along your tail every second everywhere you go, then no. We just stayed put at tolerable distance and acted when we heard something peculiar," she explained calmly and continued. "We were at the forest most of the time until we heard a gunshot at the bar and suddenly all this mess happened."

"The forest, you mean in the van?" he clarified and she nodded. "But how could you hear us when you're so far away? Don't tell me you…"

"Yes. Sorry, Cool Kid. I bugged you."

"What? Where?"

"It's at your bowtie. I put it when you asked about agent Akai in the café, remember?" she said innocently. "When you had that request of contacting Shuu, I thought that something was up. I just couldn't help it, okay?"

The detective immediately inspected his bowtie and did find something similar to bugging device. It's hidden pretty well and almost unidentifiable. There's a hint of wonder that screaming 'how could this happen?' in all over his face when he tossed the device to the water, clearly dislike the idea of him being bugged all this time. Jodie observed his behavior and mentioned apology again and again behind his back in playful tone.

"So you know this place from my meeting with Akai-san?"

"Yeah. Precisely."

"Wait, I don't understand something. If you _can_ contact him and made him see me, why didn't you ask him directly instead? Isn't that easier than putting a bug in my tie?"

"It doesn't work that way, kiddo. Everyone believed that Agent Akai was dead until we found out that he's alive. And when we did, we thought it's more profitable to maintain his death status, so only few top operatives in the Bureau knew the truth. We need to be extra careful to handle this vital piece of information, so we made a special procedure in dealing with him and his existence…."

Jodie paused for a brief moment to let Shinichi register what she meant. It didn't take that much effort for him to understand, apparently, because he was waiting with expectant expression for her to continue.

"Okay, so one simple example is we cannot contact him directly. Meetings, phones, even emails are forbidden. Instead, we use something like 'secret mailbox' where we can only drop every instructions, messages, et cetera, and he'll pick them up."

"So what you did the other day was contacting him through this _mailbox_ and waited until he made contact with me?"

"Yes, because I don't know when he'll read the message or how he'd react to it. It appeared that he trusted you enough to meet you personally and put himself at risk by coming to the island."

"I thought you guys were together on that island."

"No, it was just a coincidence. Neither of us was aware of each other's presence on that island. Well, _I_ wasn't, at least. Though we _did_ meet for a brief moment in the forest when I was on the run," Jodie exhaled. "Remember when I told you to find a white van after the shot at the bar? I wasn't quite sure of our opponent back then. But when I recognized the red-haired man with a familiar tattoo on his neck, I had guessing that we'll be facing _them_. Shuu and I happened to meet thereafter and he helped me rearrange this motorboat rescue plan."

"Wait, you knew the tattooed man with codename Ouzo?"

"Not exactly, but I knew his tattoo. There're only two persons alive on this planet that have that kind of tattoo: my friend Tora-kun of the FBI and his older brother of the black org. They used to be a family once, but something happened when his older brother started to be active in the org… The story says that he killed all of their family in one night, but Tora-kun was alive somehow. So he had this kind of revenge for his older brother and abandoned his name since. I didn't know the detail, though, he doesn't speak much about it."

"Wow," was the only thing he could say about what actually had happened that night. Jodie only stared at him with a small chuckle. "So— your friend _Tora-san_— where's he now? Is he okay?"

"Oh, he's alive. He just needed to stay a little bit longer in the island to take care few things," the FBI agent shrugged. "I believe you still left your backpacks at the village, right?"

"Ah!" as if just shocked by electric current, Shinichi jerked up. "I totally forget that!"

"Easy, Cool Kid. Tora-kun's working on it right now. He'll make sure you two didn't left any single fingerprint on that island," she laughed from her seat and relaxed. "Are you done interrogating yet?"

"Uh, I'm not sure," he was still lost in thought before settling. "I'll let you know if something comes up."

"Sure," she smiled and lied down to loosen up her bones and muscles. It had been a hard night for them to get involved in one dangerous quest in the most deadly hours they ever dealt with, so she won't lie that her mind's still shaken by this encounter and everything. But that's her job, right? She had taken oath to devote her life protecting people from the same evil that had messed her life when she was a kid. She didn't want anyone suffer in _their_ hands again, so that's why she'll do anything to fight till the end.

"Ne, Sensei," Shinichi's voice snapped her back to reality.

"Hmm?" she responded lazily from behind him.

"Thank you for saving us," he said in the sincerest manner possible. "I really mean it."

Jodie only smiled with as much sincerity. "Yeah," she replied. "I know."

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The morning emerged. Shizuma Island's joyful festivals were replaced by a sudden sleepiness that invaded the whole city. The stalls were all closed, as well as most of the doors in every house. The main street was empty but an old man sweeping and cleaning the garbage with his old wooden broom. Large mess of papers were seen in the center part of the island where the fireworks had been held, being left and abandoned until the wind took them away or until the city janitor's on duty few hours later. It was so different from the view of the Island of Festivals because everything just seemed dead.

Well, everything seemed dead, except in some burned pub and in some area in the forest near the beach. A villager was helping an officer fixing the police line on the border of what remained from the building, where a good bunch of local people gathered around and murmured at each other in disbelief about the 'accident'. The burned place was mostly occupied by men identified as forensics team in their blue uniform, performing investigation and such. A man with rumpled suit and tousled hair was talking on the cell phone while holding a bag of plastic containing something that resembled a gun. His face looked like he hadn't slept whole night.

"Yeah, Inspector," he said to the receiver. "I'll contact you as soon as the result comes up."

"Good, Takagi," Megure replied. "And make sure the press won't smell it. One leak about the suspect this morning was enough. "

"Roger that, Inspector. I'll be more careful."

Megure exhaled deeply and stuffed his phone in his pocket and back to observing in different area of the island where there found a severely burned van and more dead body on the driver's seat. The corpse, though, was unrecognizable because it's burned too badly. More officers were surrounding this ground because the fire accident was just too strange. Not to mention that there's another weird findings in the same forest where a small area seemed to just burned down with no reasonable cause. This quite gave Inspector Megure a headache as he massaged his temples desperately when a man in grey suit was approaching him.

"Coffee, Inspector," he greeted and handed the man a cup of steaming drink.

Megure only glanced at the man, Inspector Yuminaga from the arson department, and mumbled. "Thanks."

"How's it going?"

"We're working on it," Megure sighed involuntarily and sipped his drink. "All team is working on the evidences. Takagi said it won't take long to find out this guy's name."

"That's good. Though the rumor had been spread and it's already on the news."

"Yeah, bloody press," he scoffed and turned to face Yuminaga. "How's yours doing? Any lead?"

The man slurped before furrowing his eyebrows, definitely not happy. "It was a bomb, but we can't identify what kind of bomb it was. It's the new kind, I think. Bad guys are getting smarter these days."

"Not all the ordinary bad guys, that's for sure," he chuckled. "Only the big, organized criminal organization is capable of doing this kind of menace."

"True," Yuminaga agreed and titled his head to inspect his fellow inspector better. "Are you okay? You seemed to have that kind of rough night."

"Just another case at the airport. This morning," he gulped his coffee hard at the thought of the earlier case. "We were suspecting a top most wanted criminal would show up to do some trade of this 'package'. But it turned to be more complicated when these guys from the Bureau stepped in."

"The Bureau? FBI?" the man's face was shocked a little, but he smiled anyway.

"It was a bloody mess," Megure let out a long exhale escape his lungs and he felt his head cleared up from the caffeine. He decided he could survive a little longer.

"I bet it was."

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In that same morning, two miles across the island and across the water, there were two figures in black struggling to get their wet bodies to the land. With drenched black cloaks and tired limbs, they just almost succeeded their nonstop swimming from Shizuma Island by taming the cold and deep water to get their safe ticket home.

The silver-haired man grunted when he finally reached the land. He lied back down on the hard rocks on the beach immediately to endure the exhaustion. He then glanced at his side where he spotted a tall slim woman he knew very well was eyeing him from head to toe.

"Geez, you look awful," she licked her lips as she said and commented. "Isn't it too early for a morning swim?"

"Shut up, Vermouth," said Gin, annoyed. "What do you want?"

The woman exhaled audibly and looked upset. "You sent an SOS this morning, and I happened to be the nearest from your location, so here I am." She then threw something jingling at his side and added. "That's your key. You'll find your Porsche easily enough when you step out of this beach."

Vodka was out of breath when he finally survived the water. He lied himself flat on his stomach not far away from Gin. When he spotted the woman, however, he murmured something unpleasant before turning his head away. Vermouth noticed this but ignored it anyway.

"Oh, by the way, _that person _wants to see you. And he wants it quick," she informed and smirked. "Just so you know, he's very unhappy about all this."

"Yeah, right," he scoffed, unaffected by her little game of intimidation.

The woman crossed her arms on her chest and observed her partner a little bit. She noticed it every time when Gin was upset and something was messed up. She cleared up her throat and started calm and in cautious manner. "What happened?"

"It's none of your business," he hissed and Vermouth took it as a sign to back off. Maybe it's a bad idea to bring this up now, she decided. "More importantly, where the fuck were you in the last few days? Do you think it's funny to just turn off your locator and disappeared?"

"Sorry. I got something to do in the States, but I believe it's none of your business," she calmly returned the wit, and slowly turned her heels, taking her leave. Gin wasn't sure if she just didn't want to talk about the subject, or just got bored and decided to spare herself some of her precious time, he couldn't tell. Everything was always difficult to guess for that particular woman anyway.

"Was that an order from _that person_?" he demanded to the retreating woman for the last time. He thought at least he deserved to know that. But Vermouth seemed to maintain her indifference and keep on walking. She didn't even bother to turn her head to face him when she spoke up.

"I'll see you around, okay?" was all she said before completely gone from his sight.

Gin responded by cursing audibly in between his breath.

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It was ten o'clock in the morning when Conan and Haibara walked on Hakase's porch, because they were previously held at some place with Jodie for a quarantine purpose. It's better to keep them safe somewhere first, as Jodie had said, and waited until they stabilize themselves (back to their kids body, that is) and ready to leave. So it took them some time to get back to Hakase's house and now, after Jodie escorted them with their backpacks safely fetched behind their backs, they gathered the last strength to step into the house to get to their first destination: the bed. But when they reached the living room and was about to give up their consciousness, somebody greeted from behind the couch in front of the TV.

"Hi, Shin-chan! You're back! It's so good to see you, honey~"

"Okaa-san?" Conan snapped at the presence before him, wide-eyed in bewilderment. "What are you doing here?"

"To visit you, of course!" Yukiko exclaimed cheerfully and stood up, offering her little boy her arms. "C'mere and gimme a hug~"

"What? W-wait—_Ugh._"

"Uh, what's going on in here?" Haibara stared blankly at the mother-and-son show in Hakase's living room when she noticed Hakase was just getting out of the kitchen with his wide signature smile and joyful face.

"Hi, Ai-kun! Glad you made it home safely!" Agasa grinned at the girl, who was waiting expectantly for his answer. "Yukiko-kun just got here this morning from America all by herself to pay us a visit."

"Ah! Isn't that the cute and lovely Ai-chan! It's good to meet you again~" Yukiko said while wrestling Conan in her chest and hugging him there before turning her attention to the strawberry blonde. Conan was still disoriented after he was released from his mother's deadly embrace when Yukiko rushed to greet the girl. "Thank you so much for taking care of Shin-chan for me! I'm truly grateful!"

"Uh… Sure, Yukiko-san. It's no problem…" the little girl said in confusion when the energized woman brought her in her arms. She shot a glance at Conan from behind Yukiko's back to look for explanation, but he looked just as astonished as before.

"Oh, please, don't be so formal now," Yukiko giggled and let go of the hug. "From this now on, you can call me 'Okaa-san' instead."

Haibara blinked and Conan snarled. "Okaa-san, what the hell—?"

"It's okay, Shin-chan. I already know!" the woman declared in wide smile, cutting off his protest. "So now you can tell me."

"Tell you _what_ exactly?" the detective said in harsh manner to his mother who was still acted innocent to all this bizarre things.

"Your date in the Island of Festivals, of course! What else?" Yukiko was blushing now out of excitement. "I knew it from your phone call in the other day, and I just couldn't stop thinking about it! I feel honored that you let me know your feelings, Shin-chan. And I'm happy that now you're together!"

"What… phone call…?" it's Haibara's turn to voice herself up, because this conversation was just too hard to follow at this point.

"What are y—Wait, who told you about the island?" Conan was almost out of his patience now. No one should know about where they had been going, except one old gramps who had been standing up idly at the side of this morning chaos and observing this little weird family with overjoyed face. Conan glared at him in an instance and demanded. "Hakase, it was you, wasn't it?"

"Take it easy, dear. It's not his fault. Since your last call, we've been discussing things about you. And yesterday he ended up told me that you're on a date in that island while playing treasure hunt of love, or something," Yukiko was definitely steaming now. "He's been working to make you two go out together, you know! Isn't that so nice of him?"

Conan was dead silent in his spot while trying to digest this information. Pieces of puzzles started to float in his grey mind, and some funny picture begun to form. He remembered that it was Hakase who asked him to help Haibara out last week in quiet persistent way, he noted. It was Hakase who insisted that he should confront her directly after he was stuck at the investigation. And it was Hakase who was so eager that they finally decided to go to the Island. So Hakase and Okaa-san had been engaged in this…_conspiracy_? Should he be mad, or should he be thankful to him?

"Hakase, is that true…?" the strawberry blonde was eyeing at her caretaker in disbelief, cheeks burning in embarrassment. Conan mimicked her action and narrowing his eyes to the old professor, hoping for the truth.

"I-I'm sorry, Ai-kun," Hakase scratched his bald head clumsily. "I was just trying to be supportive about you guys…"

Conan and Haibara's heart dropped in unison. So it's true.

"Hey, tell me," Yukiko snapped their musings and prepared to spit out the big question. "Have you two kissed yet?~"

"Oh yeah, I was wondering on that too," Hakase joined and looked as eager as the elder woman in the room.

"Okaa-san!"

"Hakase!"

The two kids yelled at their respective parent at same time. They had no idea how red they were.

"I'll take that as a 'yes' then! Yay!"

"My, my…"

So that's how Monday morning started in Hakase's residence, where Conan initially thought that he would find some little bit of piece and serenity after their adventurous night. When Yukiko finally realized that her son was reaching his peak and might explode, she stopped teasing and fled to Hakase's guest room instead. She said she was suffering from a jet lag and excused herself for taking a short nap. Conan immediately responded that she could sleep forever, for all he cared. Yukiko pouted at her son playfully before disappeared, leaving the detective in pretty awful morning migraine.

He then sighed and dragged himself in the couch with a remote in his hand. When Conan tried to find good channel on the TV, Haibara did the same way but grabbed a newspaper instead, placed it on her lap and started to flip the pages.

"I thought you're tired," he questioned her and the look of his eyes softened as he looked at her intently. "Don't you want to go to bed instead?"

The girl only shrugged. "Suddenly, I don't feel like it."

"Yeah. Me too," the boy exhaled and turned his attention back to the TV again. Haibara was already absorbed in the passage she read when she stopped at one corner of one page and read.

"Kudo-kun, you might want to read this."

Conan slid himself to sit beside the girl (rather closely than usual, she noticed) and looked at a small section and a header saying "_A murderer and arsonist got burned inside his van while trying to escape_". The boy's eyebrows furrowed as he continued to scan the paragraphs and bit his lower lip when he recognized the photo of the suspect. It's Ouzo's face.

"So this is how they get away, huh? By making their own member a scapegoat."

"They'll do anything to make them underground, Kudo-kun, even if it meant taking life of innocent people, their fellow agents, or themselves. I'm sure you're aware of that…" her voice choked a little and he sensed her shifted a little on her seat, but he heard the girl continued. "Though, it'd be just the same for him if he failed on a mission, which he did…" she trailed again and he could feel his own heart started pounding when he detected her scent smearing from her body, "…because they will never tolerate failure."

"Yeah, he was their best chance to cover themselves up, after all," the boy didn't know why his voice was lower than he intended to, and he found himself bent over even closer as he read the text on the paper. "The news said that there's a fingerprint of the gun that found in the pub, and the bullet from the pub's owner's body matches the gun, et cetera, et cetera…" his eyes stopped reading the news at some point and found himself staring at…her hand that rested on her side: the only thing that keeping himself moving closer for now. "…If it's Ouzo's fingerprint, then the case might be over just like that. No one would ever know that _they've_ been there before."

"What about us…?" her voice was so soft that he thought he might miss it if he wasn't that close.

"What do you mean?" he said with matching tone and lifted his gaze to meet the blue orbs, searching for something.

"Will anyone know that…we've been there too?" she was almost whispering now; eyes level with his and trying to find something too behind his glasses and pretty much everything that keeping them apart. Shivers run down her spine and her body as she felt his hand grazing hers: the one that had been laying still and longing for his touch.

"Do you want anyone to know…" he breathed and smirked as he locked his palm onto hers, feeling how soft and warm her skin was, "…about _us_…?"

"I…" the girl stammered when she couldn't met his gaze again, and her sight fell down his face to his lips, back to his eyes again, and back to his lips and settled there, which seemed to lure part of her and manipulate some of her sanity. He smirked even more and prepared himself to replay what had happened between them in the island. His eyes drifted shut and for a moment this world didn't matter anymore…

…until they felt the couch jerked up somehow and almost threatened to stop their beating heart all at once. Haibara instinctively pushed him away and looked behind his back, where she suddenly got up the couch and turned around abruptly, trying her best to hide her blush.

"I'm going to rest," she said and went to her room.

Conan could only watch her disappear so quickly and turned around to see _what the hell_—

"Sorry," an old voice greeted him before he could even look at the person, making him jolted again. "My favorite show is on."

By that time, Conan had caught Hakase's face—still overjoyed face—and felt suddenly unable to snap at him, or question him, as he normally would whenever the Professor put his innocent face after doing some of his lame pranks. He even almost forgot the fact that this man had been engaged in a scheme behind his back with his mother. Instead, the boy found it hard to look at him in the eye as his chest was filled with nervousness and…guilt? He had this urge to explain everything about what happened seconds ago but his mind was too occupied to make up any words. He felt dumb.

"Uh…" his voice came out but nothing were formed. "It's– _um_…"

"It's alright. I know," Hakase said simply. There's no joke, or anger, in his tone, and the boy found something strange tickling in his tummy. Agasa never sounded so understanding to him, as he could remember. Fatherly even. And now he could assume that they could all pretend to ignore what happened on the couch earlier, so he dared himself to muster up courage and lift his gaze.

"Does it mean that…you're okay with it?" he said it so carefully, almost like a kid who just broke a vase and asked his mother for forgiveness. But he meant more than that, and Hakase knew it. The older man inhaled before settling his answer.

"Well, it's not up to me to decide the person you like, or who you're going to date. You're not kids anymore," Hakase started and Conan knew he was addressing the statement for both him and Haibara. "But let me ask you something, Shinichi-kun. Do you love her?"

The detective fell silent for a moment before nodding. "Yes," he said firmly. "And I promise I will do her no wrong."

Hakase took his time to study his two gleaming eyes that reflected nothing but honesty and all that confident young spirits inside of him. Then his child-like grin returned, wider than before.

"I'm happy for you two, then," he announced cheerfully and he was back at the TV, considering this all settled.

The strawberry blonde girl in her room was listening through the ajar door, resting her weight on the wall, and her lips couldn't help but smile.

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"Alright, class! That's the end of today," Kobayashi-sensei turned from the blackboard to face the kids as the school bell rang. "See you tomorrow!"

"Okay, Senseiii~ See you!"

Conan let out a sigh as he packed his bag and stood up from his chair. Surely, it's just another day at the school where he just spent most of his time staring blankly at the teachers, or doing one of those lame assignments, or yawning audibly at some point when the class really got boring. But he always found himself got all weary from this routine. Especially after the previous day's experience with Haibara which drained his energy physically, plus the non-stop teasing from his mother which annoyed him mentally.

He glanced from his shoulder to check on the girl who's practically smirking at him while getting up from her seat.

"What?" he deadpanned. Haibara only kept on smirking as she started to walk to the door like the other kids surround them.

"Nothing," she scoffed. "It just never fails to amuse me whenever you wear that face."

"What face?"

"_That_ face. Whenever you either really bored to death or starving for cases."

"I'm not starving for cases. Yesterday was enough, thank you very much," he tucked his hands in his pocket and halted for a brief second to let Haibara pass the door. Once they're outside, he started again. "I'm just tired, that's all."

"If you're tired, you should get some rest and eat a lot, Conan-kun!" a girly voice came behind him, commanding and mother-like. "You can get sick."

"Yeah, or you can get a really, really bad flu," a husky voice commented before bringing up his handkerchief and blew his nose. The boy exhaled briefly when he could breathe again and continued. "Flu sucks. My mom won't let me play outside for a week."

"Maybe you shouldn't go to school today, Genta-kun," another boy joined the conversation as they reached the hallway near the school exit. "You still look unhealthy."

"Staying home sucks too," Genta pouted. "School is more fun."

"Yeah but you actually spent most of today in the infirmary," Haibara chuckled while turning around and leaned herself on one of the lockers when they made there. Detective boys had the usual schedule of checking their 'case request' in Genta's box after school. So they gathered around as Genta was working on his locker combo to see what kind of case they'll solve today.

"Ai-chan's right. You only came out during recess and then you went back to sleep again in there."

The accused boy only shrugged, his fingers were still working to get his locker opened. "It's comfy, and I'm feeling better now." The locker was unlocked and Genta made a disappointed face. "_What?_ No case again today? That sucks…"

"Too bad, isn't it?" Mitsuhiko smiled as he too noticed that the locker was empty. "Maybe next time, guys."

"Wait, there's something popping out from Conan-kun's locker!" Ayumi exclaimed and pointed towards a certain locker with something like a paper slipped underneath. Conan's flat face suddenly lit up and he marched to pull the paper and read it, followed by the rest of the group tugging behind his back. "What's that, Conan-kun?"

"It's from today's newspaper," Mitsuhiko observed and knitted his eyebrows. "But it's weird. What with those red marks? Is it some kind of code?"

The boy with glasses only remained silent as he scanned the newspaper page. At that point he was so absorbed that he didn't notice a certain strawberry blonde studying his face intently from beside him. Then, as if got struck by lightning, he snapped and back to reality.

"It's nothing, guys. Just some kids playing a prank," he announced and his face turned bored again. He crumpled the paper before tossing it to the garbage near them.

"What? It seems like _something_ to me," Genta growled as he saw the paper gone. "What is it, Conan!"

"I said it's nothing," Conan shrugged and started to walk away before Mitsuhiko blocked his way.

"The paper's too strange to be nothing, Conan-kun," he crossed his arms to his chest and looked at his friend accusingly. "We could let us try to read it."

"Yeah, why did you throw it away, Conan-kun?" Ayumi was cornering him along with the other boys. All were asking for a good explanation from him, and he had known from experience that it's going to be really hard to escape the suspicious Detective Boys. He had to think some way to make some distraction.

"A-Ah! Look at the time! I promised Ran-neechan to help her cleaning the house today!" he said in sudden high-pitched voice and pointed at his wristwatch nervously. Haibara rolled her eyes at his lame excuse, knowing that he hadn't even contacted that girl from the detective agency since they got back from the Island. She was now sure that the paper really meant something, and it's definitely not the usual 'something' because he tried to hide it.

"Ran-neechan won't be home until this afternoon, Conan-kun. She's in high school, remember?" Mitsuhiko argued from his spot, determined to keep Conan from running away. Ayumi was beside Mistuhiko, her face was full of concern and doubt at the same time. Next, Genta rested his hands on his hips in threatening manner. And last, Haibara was still leaning on the locker, looked no other different. Conan eyed them one-by-one and gulped as he settled his gaze to the strawberry blonde girl, which in turn was staring at him questioningly.

Then, he reached to hold her palm out of the blue, almost made her jump at the sudden touch. "A-Actually, it's… uncle Kogorou who told me to help me cleaning the house today… Right?"

His was practically begging her to help him in this situation because he couldn't think of anything else and she always understood whenever there's something going on. But she only gave him an _are-you-kidding-me_ look as she raised an eyebrow to him. The detective didn't give up and kept on shooting her with his pleading eyes, hoping that she would let him go this time. He squeezed her hand on his in a manner that left unnoticed by their friends around them.

"Uh... Why are you guys holding hands?" Genta looked distractedly to their connecting palms. Mitsuhiko and Ayumi did the same too and grew even more curious. Conan was desperately hoping that Haibara would understand now.

_Please_, he said with his eyes._ Please, help me through this!_

As if getting the message, Haibara broke the physical contact and lifted her head to face Genta, exhaling dramatically as she spoke to get everyone's attention. "Edogawa-kun is just scared that his uncle will be mad at him if he's not home on time," she said while putting up her best worried face to convince her friends. "He'll be locked up in his room if he's late for cleaning today."

"Really?" Mitsuhiko winced at Haibara's explanation and he turned to Conan with softened face. The boy only managed a forced smile and a weak nod. "Well, I think you should go home now, then."

Conan blinked in his smile. _That's it?_

"Yeah, better not make that grumpy old man angry with you."

Wait, even Genta was buying it. Haibara words truly were magical.

"Be careful, Conan-kun. And good luck!"

With Ayumi's permission, he slipped between his friends and mumbled an apology and made a quick move to the exit. The detective boys only followed him with their eyes until he slowly disappeared. Before he completely gone, however, he succeeded in catching a glance to Haibara's face which didn't look quite happy with this. He made a mental note to talk to her later.

But now, he had to go somewhere else, as the message in the paper instructed. It's Akai's message.

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**TO BE CONTINUED**

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><p><strong>AN: **So, yeah, this story is going to end on the next chapter, I hope, if I don't have much trouble writing the ending. Any comments for this chapter, people?

See you soon! ^_^


	12. Quest Accomplished

**A/N: **Thank you so much for you guys who's been supporting me by reviewing or just reading (though I do hope to hear your comments on the review page^^). It's been an incredible experience in writing this journey and I hope you like it too.

Anyway, enjoy this last chapter!

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Detective Conan**

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**CHAPTER 12 – Quest Accomplished**

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"Do you want to see me?" Conan greeted as he took a seat inside a pretty dim lit café in a corner of one crowded street in Beika City. In front of him, there sitting a man in a cap covering his face, a cup of coffee on the table, and a bowl of peanuts. The man's face lifted up and his eyes searching for something behind him in suspicion. Conan followed his sight and noticed as he nodded towards the waitress which she responded by nodding back. Then they two were left alone at the dark room which mostly occupied by empty tables and random coffee images on the wall. After making sure they're secure, Akai spoke up.

"Yes. I'm glad you look well, Tantei-kun," he greeted back and gave him genuine kind of look which Conan could describe as smile, if it wasn't too dubious.

"Good to see you're okay, too," the boy said and took a seat. "And I'm not sure if thanks is enough. But thank you, for saving our lives."

"It's no problem. You can say that it's part of my job."

"I really mean it," he said again and looked him right through the eyes, emphasizing his gratefulness. "We made it safely because of your help, and left the island with no harm. Oh, and she's fine, too, by the way."

"Hmm. Good for her."

Akai said simply and Conan could detect that the FBI agent was lost in thought for a brief moment. The detective kept silent anyway, waiting for him to collect himself and spit the real reason why Akai wanted to meet him in the first place. A car past the street with screeching sound that could be heard through the thick dark glass of the café and he glanced at the passersby, distracted a little. Judging from the place, he admitted that Akai sure had picked up the best for this risky meeting. As expected from him, he guessed.

"I'm leaving Japan today," Akai said after a while, snapping Conan back to face him again.

"What?"

"There's something going on that night. It was much worse than our little party at Shizuma Island."

"You mean at the airport?" the boy guessed almost immediately and Akai only gave him questioning look.

"How do you know?"

"I heard it from Jodie-sensei's phone call with her boss last night," Conan waved his hand as if it didn't really matter and he was just happened to know a little of the news. "It was my quick conclusion. I didn't exactly know what that was about."

Akai relaxed and broke his gaze to the kid. "Oh," he responded. "Well, yeah, that night at the airport. We've been put our ears on this transaction and preparing everything on this operation. But our agent's cover was blown and the target escaped right under FBI's nose and Tokyo MPD. It was practically a slap in the Bureau's face," he paused a little bit and gritted his teeth. "A total mess," he sighed before throwing a glance outside the glass window, squinting and looked really disappointed.

Although Conan could see that he was pissed, he didn't understand where the conversation's going, so he just stared and encouraged him to continue.

"I'm going to put an investigation from where it came from. America, that is," Akai's face softened and he took a glass of coffee in front of him, but he just stared at it as if inspecting something in there. "I'm leaving today."

"Yeah, but," the boy voiced up in confused tone. "Akai-san, why are you telling me this?"

At that point, Akai's face stabbed straight at Conan, sharp and deep. The boy almost winced at how tense the atmosphere had shifted and he had to hold the urge to gulp because it was too sudden. His right hand on the table unconsciously crumpled to a fist as if anticipating something and the other hand held a tight grip on the wooden chair. Why the hell was Akai looking at him like that? Did he say something wrong?

It's unnatural to see the usually-calm agent looking at him with those murderous eyes, so he immediately switched to defensive position.

"You told Shiho about Akemi and I," the man finally said, still maintaining the glare. His words were solid, doubtless, and didn't need to be clarified. He knew it. And as much as Conan was taken aback by this unexpected change of topic, and he was pretty sure that it was irrelevant, the boy could only felt his heart stopped beating once. Akai's simple tone in stating the simple fact had punched him in the chest. But he truly, truly understood that he owed him an explanation.

"I did," he started while letting a good amount of air out of his lungs. He had to stop for a good second and clear his mind to deal with this calmly, carefully, and _manly_. Because no matter how wrong it seemed, he believed he had done the right thing. "She deserved to know the truth."

The FBI agent only looked at him with the same gaze, the same accusation.

"A-And, look, I know it wasn't my place to tell her," Conan admitted quickly, shifted on his chair to break up the tension, much to himself. "And if I overstepped the boundaries—" he made sure he found his eyes as he's saying this, because he meant it. "—I apologize."

There he said it. Conan felt his chest loosen at his own words and he was ready to take whatever consequences. He even winced unconsciously in anticipation if, say, Akai decided to punch him right in the face just because he deserved it. But such counter he expected never came. Instead, Akai broke up the death glare and took the coffee instead. It was a long gulp, before the agent put the cup on the table and threw his look outside the window again, looking rather…_defeated_?

"I recognized her right away when we first met. I knew that she was _her_," he still looked far away as he dig on his mind to find the right way to say it. "But up until now I can't even man up and tell her by myself. Even when I'm hours away from leaving this country and probably never be able to do it anyway."

Conan heard him exhaled and a pause lingered in the space. His detective brain couldn't help but note that there was another change of pace in this conversation. A minute ago, he was mad. But now, even Conan couldn't describe how broken he looked, though he still kept his composure. Conan was debating whether to keep silent or cheer up the FBI agent, which he had completely no idea how to, so he settled for the first option and processed this subject in his mind. This kind of man-to-man conversation rarely happened in his life, so he had to take it slow to handle it properly.

Okay, so. Akai was upset about Conan telling the truth to Haibara. Conan understood it. But after that, Akai was upset too for not being able to tell her all this time, which led to some deduction that _she_ was the main object here. _She_ was the reason of all this. Not him or Akai, just _her_. He just wanted to talk about her, to _him_. Why, he wouldn't dare to guess. But as long as there's Haibara involved, he felt that he had to take part in this even if it meant dealing with a certain troubled agent. He had to figure something out of this.

Carefully, he studied the man in front of him and looked him straight. And as soon as his grey mind registered something behind those eyes, it all dawned upon him as if his head just saw a bright light and suddenly everything seemed clear and the fog had been lifted. He knew what this was about. He knew why Akai told him about his leave and told him stuff about Shiho. He knew it, because he's been through it.

"Don't worry, Akai-san," the boy began in the most assuring manner he could manage. "I'll protect her."

Akai's face turned again to him as he spoke because there's something in the way Conan was saying it.

"I know that she's part of your concern. Well, she's part of my concern too and I care about her as much as you do. So, please don't worry about her, because I'll do my best to keep her safe," Conan's voice was certain and so in control, and he wished his message would get through him as he finished. "I promise."

The man only looked at the boy in front of him with whatever expression he had, before his lips were actually smiling. In relief, or gratitude, Conan would imagine. For a moment he felt that the ice in the air had melted. Akai didn't say a word and looked pretty impressed, so he considered the matter settled.

But then Akai reached backward to take something behind him. A soft thud followed later as he put a thing on the table between them. Conan's brows knitted at once.

"Before I leave, one last thing, Tantei-kun. I need you to give her this," Akai said, nodding towards the him to observe the object. It was a neatly-wrapped package in a size of his lunchbox. The cover was plain and looked rather old. He decided that it was nothing special before Akai said the magic words. "I believe it was hers."

"Hers?" Conan repeated. Confused.

"Yes," Akai said lightly with a content smile on his face. "It's what you're looking for, wasn't it?"

Conan took a while to understand before his eyes went wide at the instant he realized what it was.

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As much as he wanted to flee to Hakase's residence quickly after he's done with Akai and wishing him good luck, he realized that he had to come to Kogorou's agency sooner or later. So there he was, greeting lamely at his uncle (which was immediately responded by an impatient bark) and being dragged outside straight away by Ran to have some lunch. Not that he's into the idea or anything. But his particular childhood friend was as cheerful as rainbow as she spotted him and she gave him no time to argue, so he did as he's told. Besides, it might help to kill some time.

He found himself sitting on some fast-food restaurant few minutes later with Ran and wished that everything wouldn't be as bad, until Sonoko sat in front of him and shot him a disgusted face.

"Ran, what's this brat's doing here?"

"Be nice, Sonoko. Conan-kun's just got back home today," Ran said to her best friend and stood up. "I'm going to order. What do you guys have in mind?"

"The usual," Sonoko replied with a shrug. Ran nodded and turned to the sulking boy in the seat in front of her, smiling expectantly. Conan lifted up his face, confused.

"Ah," he snapped back from whatever he was thinking and blurted out. "Just cola, please."

"Don't you want to eat, Conan-kun? I'm buying," Ran offered, but Conan just had lunch from his school and a sandwich from Akai so he didn't feel like it.

"Cola would be just fine, thanks," he settled. And that was the end of argument.

Ran gave up and decided to do her job: excusing herself to the counter and leaving Conan under the annoyed glare of Sonoko from the opposite side of the table. He was considering, for the second time, to just escape from this place but it was too late. The food was served faster than he anticipated. So there's nothing he could do except for grabbing his cola and getting ready for two hours of non-stop ranting and gossiping, or something else he wouldn't care to comprehend.

He sighed. It would be a long wait to get to Haibara's place tonight.

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He watched his step extra carefully when he stepped down the spiral stairs. Once he reached the door, he had to hold his breath while turning the cold doorknob until it's finally opened. Slowly, very slowly, he peeked inside and squinted to identify the object under the darkness. It wasn't hard for him to spot the only illuminating source of light in the room that belonged to the running PC in one corner. Also, he found the little figure in front of the device, facing away from him, clearly wasn't aware of his presence. Grinning, he stepped inside and made sure he didn't make any noise when he closed the door shut.

His eyes inspected the figure once again which, thankfully, was still unmoved. With the same caution as before, his feet started to swing forward. One, two, three, four steps… He winced when he almost bump into one box on the floor, but the figure seemed like didn't hear a thing. So, good. He kept what he was doing until he made half through the room unnoticed.

By the time he was two feet away from the target, however, he halted. Few options crossed his mind about how to make the grand finale, but he couldn't decide what. All he could do was watching as her fingers flawlessly danced on the keyboard, her hair glowed under such radiance that made it looked like shining, and her oversized pajamas instead of the usual lab coat she was wearing. He found it's hard to take off the beautiful sight and he did nothing but just standing there. It was as easy as that: feeling wordless.

"You're staring," the figure commented idly from her seat without turning, almost making the boy jump at the unexpected voice that broke the silence for the first time.

"Y-You knew?" he stammered. "Since when?"

Her fingers stopped in mid air for one split second. "Pretty much since you first came in here."

"Then why didn't you say anything?" he walked past her and grabbed a chair to sit beside the blonde, facing her.

"Don't know," she casually shrugged at the detective and pointed out. "Anyway, I thought you'll be at detective agency tonight."

"Nah... I convinced Ran that this would be my last stay for this week. You know, just to check on my mother," he lied. He's actually well aware that, one, his mother could handle herself. And two, it's Haibara who he wanted to see more than anyone else since the entire day. But he committed to have a less arguable conversation tonight. And he was nervous. So he couldn't help it.

"Mmm. That's very nice of you," she smirked, but never took her eyes off the screen. "Yukiko-san's upstairs, actually."

"Yeah, I know, but…" he trailed off. Of course he knew where his mother was. He just passed her when he's going to this basement while teasing him all the way. And, most of all, he wasn't there to discuss about his mother. He was there for a bigger reason than that and he wished he could just spit it out. So he casted his silent prayer and began. "Haibara, I need to talk to you."

The girl looked at him this time, still with her nonchalant face but seemed uncertain at some point. She stopped at once and leaned back to the chair, crossing her arms. "Okay. What about?"

He had been thinking about where to go when he's asked the question, really. Since he left the detective agency, he never stopped trying to sort his mind out, until suddenly his skateboard hit Hakase's porch. But it hadn't work very well. The answer he expected to say didn't come out easily despite there're so many things bubbling inside his mind, threatening to blow: about Akai, about what happened between him and Haibara at Shizuma Island, about how he wanted her to know how he felt about them… Damn, he even wasn't sure there's such thing as 'them' because he had never officially confronted her about it.

But he was never good at making this kind of confrontation, wasn't he?

"I… Um.." he murmured. One hand stretched to scratch on his hair involuntarily while he spoke. "I'm not sure where to start. So…"

He cleared his throat and that was that. He felt his cheeks burning for some reason because he could sense that she was fixing her gaze to him, and he felt like an idiot. His eyes were looking at somewhere around the wall, looking for distraction. Part of him wanted to curse on himself for not being able to be in control, but part of him just honestly didn't know what to do in this situation.

"Kudo-kun," she decided to speak up after few seconds. "Is it about our little game of treasure hunt the other day?"

The detective blinked. There was something in the way she said it that made him look at her again. Maybe it's the subtle usage of the term _treasure hunt_ to describe what they've been through, or maybe it's how gentle she sounded in that tormenting silence. Either way, there's a truth in her simple words that made him, though hesitant at first, nod affirmatively.

"Yes, it's about that," he admitted while still eyeing on the strawberry blonde, who just shifted on her chair and looked away for a second with a—wait, is that a smile?

"Well, in that case," she uncrossed her arms and put them on the table, leaning forward slightly and staring at them instead. "I think it was wonderful and I was enjoying it. Except for maybe the hide-and-seek part…"

He let himself smiling at the term, but she made her point.

"…And if there finally occurs the time, under different circumstances and less dangerous risks, I'm looking forward to do that again."

She was definitely blushing at this point, proven by how uneasy she acted. But other than that, she tried to look at him when she said it and he looked at her too. To tell the truth, that wasn't what he had in his head exactly, but it's the essence that mattered. Haibara just told him that she was enjoying their moment and proposing the idea of going out together. Well, of course, when it's safer for them to go together once more. And for now, that's the best he could wish for.

"Okay," Conan's face lit up and relaxed. "That'd be great."

"Okay," she breathed out. A hint of red still appeared in her cheeks as she turned to face the monitor again. "Anything else, Detective?"

He was still struggling to suppress his joy by looking away, but he recovered quickly. Yes, he still had something else and he'd better make it quick before she lost the interest and the good mood.

"Uh.. Yeah, actually. It's about the afterschool locker message today," he straightened up in his chair, as if about to bring some big news or something. "It was a code from Akai-san and I've met him in person this afternoon."

The strawberry blonde instantly shot him a glare and suspicious look. "What did he want?"

"Nothing. It was just… He survived the island, and um…" It actually was harder that he thought, after seeing her expression. But he had to continue. "Remember when Andrew-san told us about how he lost your mother's present?"

Haibara winced at the mention of the bartender, but she nodded eventually. "Yeah, somebody threatened him and he had no choice but give it away. Why?"

"Well, it turned out that…" his voice was wary now and he let himself breathe for a while. "It was Akai-san who took it from that bar."

"Wait, what?"

"I know it's hard to believe," Conan tried to as cool as possible to explain. "Over a year ago, your sister went to visit the bar, and that's when Akai-san learned about the present and that you're supposed to pick it up in the future."

The girl could only stare at him in indecisive kind of face, but she clearly demanded more of this so she let him carry on.

"…But then after he's no longer in the org, he thought he needed to secure your present to prevent it being discovered by wrong hands. You know, by _them_. And he disguised himself to take it from that bar," he finished his story with a satisfied grin.

"Kudo-kun, are you telling me that—" she said it slowly as if her head was trying to process something nearly could be described as irrational. "—_that_ FBI agent stole the present?"

"No. I'm telling you that he had been keeping it safe all along," his grin grew even wider and before she could interrupt him more, he reached for something under his shirt: a rather small box Akai gave him earlier that day, and presented it on the table. "And he decided to return it now."

She narrowed her eyes to the box in a mix between disbelief and slight hesitation, unable to retort or make any kind of response.

"So, come on. Open up," he suggested.

It took her few seconds to move her arm and took the thing off the table. She inspected it first, held it on her palm, but that was it. She didn't look like she's eager to open it as a person would normally react if they'd found a long-lost treasure like that.

"Haibara," he called her name, somewhat worried. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know how am I supposed to feel about this," she finally spoke up, but her gaze still fixed to the lifted box in her hand. "It doesn't change things between him and me, and my sister…"

The boy wasn't so surprised when he heard this. He'd kind of expected that it would happen actually.

"No, of course it doesn't. It happened and nothing will ever change," he stated quickly, somewhat understandingly, while leaning forward to get the view of her better. He wasn't trying to be smart or anything, because he had come to realization that he had a lot to work on his interpersonal side of skill and instinct. But these last few days had taught him lessons that he wouldn't get in any other places, and he knew the only way to experience it was to get through it together. "Maybe you can, um…" his hand gestured between her figure and himself. "Maybe we can figure something out later, until you know how to deal with it. W-Well, of course you do the most figuring part and I'll just help."

She narrowed her eyes and eyeing him from her seat, half-amused and half in disbelief, as if trying to recall something deep in her memory but stuck at him instead. Was there something funny that she eventually smiled? But she didn't say no more, leaving the space with another beat of silence. Only, it was comfortable so he assumed that they could drop the Akai subject for the moment and he made a mental note to bring it out in some other time.

"So, you're going to open it now?" he said expectantly and she gave up. She wouldn't lie that she's actually excited about the present too, so she sat up straight as her quick fingers began to unwrap the neat box under her palm. Conan licked his lips, suddenly felt curious as to what's inside. The present had always been their cause of their journey and since they almost lost their lives and anything, it better be something worth. For her, at least.

Few seconds had past when she finally took something out of the box. His heart threatened to jump out of his throat as she held it out in her hand. It was…

"A tape?"

The girl only smiled and observed the device in front of her, contented. "Yeah. It's another tape."

"Another tape," he repeated and blinked.

"What, disappointing much?"

"Only if it's some other code which leads to yet another treasure hunt," he shrugged, teasing. An instant glare shot right through him and he laughed. "Geez, Haibara. I was kidding!"

The glare didn't stop right away, but he found that the effect wasn't intimidating anymore. Since when did Haibara's glare become less murderous and look rather adorable instead?

"So… I'm going to listen, I guess," she announced and his laugh stopped.

"Alright. I'll just be upstairs, then," he jumped off his seat and was about to leave when she promptly reached out her hand to hold his.

"No," she demanded. "Stay."

The boy studied her for a moment. He was thinking that maybe she needed a space to listen to her mother's tape, as usual, because the subject was quite personal to Haibara and he respected that. But looking at her like this, demanding him to stay while she was listening to the hidden record she never knew existed, really meant something to him as he felt a smile formed in his lips and some warmth flowed through his chest.

"Okay. I'll stay." And he obediently took his seat back while she was busy with the drawer on the table where her beloved tape player rested. Once it's prepared, the tape was inside the player and the headset was on her head.

She clicked the play button and bit her lip in anticipation about what she's going to get from the so-called present from her mother. Even Conan had to gulp down because he also felt the tension.

The unreadable expression on her face soon was replaced by her smile as soon as the familiar voice broke through her ears, greeting her.

"_My dearest Shiho…_"

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**THE END**

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><p><strong>AN: **So, yeah. It ends.

I posted it as soon as I finished it. I hope it came out right.

And oh yeah, of course, there will be more. Maybe after I'm done with my homework? Well, hopefully. Finals coming up and I'm haunted with so many deadlines, so it will take some time. So, once again, see you \^_^/


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